Enhanced thermoelectric performance of rough silicon nanowires

Nature
Allon I HochbaumPeidong Yang

Abstract

Approximately 90 per cent of the world's power is generated by heat engines that use fossil fuel combustion as a heat source and typically operate at 30-40 per cent efficiency, such that roughly 15 terawatts of heat is lost to the environment. Thermoelectric modules could potentially convert part of this low-grade waste heat to electricity. Their efficiency depends on the thermoelectric figure of merit ZT of their material components, which is a function of the Seebeck coefficient, electrical resistivity, thermal conductivity and absolute temperature. Over the past five decades it has been challenging to increase ZT > 1, since the parameters of ZT are generally interdependent. While nanostructured thermoelectric materials can increase ZT > 1 (refs 2-4), the materials (Bi, Te, Pb, Sb, and Ag) and processes used are not often easy to scale to practically useful dimensions. Here we report the electrochemical synthesis of large-area, wafer-scale arrays of rough Si nanowires that are 20-300 nm in diameter. These nanowires have Seebeck coefficient and electrical resistivity values that are the same as doped bulk Si, but those with diameters of about 50 nm exhibit 100-fold reduction in thermal conductivity, yielding ZT = 0.6 at room t...Continue Reading

References

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Citations

Aug 3, 2010·Nanoscale Research Letters·Buyong WanXiaoshan He
Nov 16, 2010·Nanoscale Research Letters·Moongyu JangTaehyoung Zyung
Jan 20, 2011·ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces·Xing ZhongXiangfeng Duan
Apr 11, 2012·ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces·Youn-Gyu HanToshimi Shimizu
May 3, 2013·ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces·Nadine GeyerPeter Werner
Jun 8, 2010·Journal of the American Chemical Society·Jiaqing HeVinayak P Dravid
Oct 19, 2010·Journal of the American Chemical Society·Ke SunDeli Wang
Aug 30, 2011·Journal of the American Chemical Society·Guoxing ZhuXiaoping Shen
Sep 10, 2011·Journal of the American Chemical Society·Steven N GirardMercouri G Kanatzidis
Oct 6, 2011·Journal of the American Chemical Society·Julien P A MakongoPierre F P Poudeu
Dec 14, 2012·Journal of the American Chemical Society·Seungwook KimWoong Kim
Jun 11, 2009·Journal of the American Chemical Society·David T SchoenYi Cui
Nov 7, 2009·Journal of the American Chemical Society·Huanli DongXiong Gong
Apr 29, 2010·Journal of the American Chemical Society·Maksym V KovalenkoDmitri V Talapin
Apr 21, 2011·Langmuir : the ACS Journal of Surfaces and Colloids·Sameh TawfickA John Hart
Jul 7, 2011·Langmuir : the ACS Journal of Surfaces and Colloids·Beom Seok KimHyung Hee Cho
Mar 23, 2011·Nano Letters·Rienk E AlgraErik P A M Bakkers
Apr 30, 2011·Nano Letters·Konrad RykaczewskiJohn Henry J Scott
Jun 3, 2011·Nano Letters·Sebastian SchäferAlf Mews
Sep 29, 2011·Nano Letters·Shagufta NaureenSrinivasan Anand
Oct 20, 2011·Nano Letters·Wai-Keung ToZhifeng Huang
Apr 13, 2012·Nano Letters·Sheng DaiJing Zhu
Apr 13, 2012·Nano Letters·G StanR F Cook
May 19, 2012·Nano Letters·Jeffrey M WeisseXiaolin Zheng
Oct 31, 2012·Nano Letters·Ming Hu, Dimos Poulikakos

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