n-type thermoelectric material Mg^sub 2^Sn^sub 0.75^Ge^sub 0.25^ for high power generation

Thermoelectric power generation is one of the most promising techniques to use the huge amount of waste heat and solar energy. Traditionally, high thermoelectric figure-of-merit, ZT, has been the only parameter pursued for high conversion efficiency. Here, we emphasize that a high power factor (PF) is equivalently important for high power generation, in addition to high efficiency. A new n-type Mg2Sn-based material, ..., is a good example to meet the dual requirements in efficiency and output power. It was found that ... has an average ZT of 0.9 and PF of 52 ...W-cm...-K-2 over the temperature range of 25-450 ...C, a peak ZT of 1.4 at 450 ...C, and peak PF of 55 ...W-cm...-K-2 at 350 ...C. By using the energy balance of one-dimensional heat flow equation, leg efficiency and output power were calculated with Th = 400 ...C and Tc = 50 ...C to be of 10.5% and 6.6 W-cm... under a temperature gradient of 150 ...C...mm..., respectively. (ProQuest: ... denotes formulae/symbols omitted.)