The recent discoveries of new quantum materials, the advances in deposition as well as exfoliation methods, and the improved ability to manufacture contacts and interfaces have refocused the interest of the scientific community on electron transport phenomena. A panoply of applications, ranging from electronic to energy conversion devices, relies on optimized charge transport and, in most cases, requires careful balancing of competing degrees of freedom. A typical example is the power factor (PF = S2/ρ, S is the thermopower and ρ the electrical resistivity), which expresses the need to simultaneously optimize charge and entropic components in the electron transport to improve thermoelectric energy conversion.
The search for optimized thermoelectric materials poses also an interesting conundrum because of the delicate balance, which must be achieved between charge and thermal transport. In addition, practical factors such as cost and manufacturability play an important role when discussing materials and properties.
We have done substantial progress in addressing these issues and will present an overview of our recent advances and progress in the design of ternary and quaternary thermoelectric sulfides for mid-temperature applications. Our conclusions are based on a synergistic approach which combines synthesis, characterization, and first principles modeling.
The recently introduced photothermoelectric (PTE) effect is proposed for investigating the dynamic thermal parameters of condensed matter samples. The front detection configuration, together with the thermal-wave resonator cavity (TWRC) method as scanning procedure, was used to measure the value of thermal effusivity. The back configuration, together with the TWRC technique and/or the chopping frequency of the incident radiation as scanning parameter, leads to the direct measurement of thermal diffusivity. Recent applications to solid (materials with different values of thermal parameters) and liquid (nanofluids) samples are summarized. The ferro-paraelectric phase transition of triglycine-sulphate (TGS) was also detected. The performances of the PTE method have been compared with those of the photopyroelectric (PPE) technique.
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