About the project
This project focusses on enhancing thermoelectric materials for waste harvesting of waste heat using quantum technology
Thermoelectric (TE) materials are an important class of materials for power generation that can directly convert waste heat into electrical energy based on the Seebeck effect. With 90% of the world’s power being generated by heat engines that operate at <40% efficiency resulting in roughly 15 terawatts of energy being lost as heat, the potential for TE generators in sustainable waste–heat–recovery systems is huge.
However, current TE materials have low efficiencies and are expensive to manufacture so that TE devices have only found application in niche markets. Clearly a step change is required in the performance of TE materials that would enable the wider adoption of such technologies.
One promising strategy to improve their performance is to harness quantum confinement effects in low dimensional structures such as nanowires which have consistently outperformed their bulk counterparts.
In this project you will fabricate nanowires and combine them with organic conducting polymers to generate a new generation of high performance hybrid TE materials that combine the low thermal conductivity of the polymer and the superior charge transport properties of the inorganic component. This project will develop skills and expertise in materials fabrication and characterisation, thermoelectrics as well as quantum materials.
