Nanowires display enhanced thermoelectric potential

Thermoelectric materials convert waste heat to electrical energy through a process known as the Seebeck effect.

The materials are used in applications such as power plants and cars, for example, where they convert waste exhaust heat into sustainable energy.

Now researchers at the University of Warwick, in collaboration with the Universities of Cambridge and Birmingham, have discovered that shaping thermoelectric materials into the thinnest possible nanowires means they conduct less heat and more electricity at the same time. This results in significantly greater efficiency than bulk versions of the materials.

The researchers were investigating the crystallisation of tin telluride in extremely narrow carbon nanotubes, which they used as templates for the formation of the materials in their one-dimensional form, according to the paper’s first author Dr Andrij Vasylenko, from the University of Warwick’s Department of Physics.

“By sublimation, we converted the material into its gaseous form, and the gas then filled the tube and crystallised,” said Vasylenko.