Title
3D Nanostructured Thermoelectric Materials

CoPED ID
a9ba37a5-107b-4b20-b2a5-687afd4b1a96

Status
Closed


Value
No funds listed.

Start Date
Sept. 30, 2019

End Date
March 31, 2023

Description

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The world's energy consumption is reaching 16 terawatts and is predicted to triple by 2050.
Meeting this huge demand along with great concerns over climate change has now led to an urgency for the development of cleaner and renewable energy sources. Thermoelectric (TE) materials are systems that can directly convert thermal waste heat into electrical energy. It has potential to make significant contribution to the development of low carbon power generation highlighted in the Clean Growth Strategy of the UK Government. In order to achieve this goal, a key challenge is to improve the efficiency of TE materials and reduce manufacture cost. The success in this endeavour will lead to wide scale applications in power generation and efficient cooling of thermoelectric technology beyond the current niche markets (example: spacepower generation and cooling laser diodes or infrared detectors). This project seeks to develop a new breed of 3D thermoelectric metamaterials that have controlled nanostructured features upon the 100 nm scale, allowing unprecedented control over electronic and phononic properties and offering a highly controlled pathway for understanding the effect of nanoscale topology.

The project involves the manufacture of novel 3D nanostructured thermoelectric materials using two-photon lithography. The fabricated samples will be subject to standard physical characterisation such as scanning electron microscopy and atomic force microscopy. Furthermore, the electronic and thermal properties of 3D TE samples will be measured using both nanoscale scanning probe measurements and bulk transport measurements. The student will also benefit from interactions with theorists at Exeter University. Ultimately, the project will develop a new breed of TE devices with a step change in performance.

Sam Ladak SUPER_PER
Min Gao SUPER_PER

Subjects by relevance
  1. Renewable energy sources
  2. Nanostructures
  3. Microscopy
  4. Energy production (process industry)
  5. Electron microscopy
  6. Nanotechnology

Extracted key phrases
  1. 3d Nanostructured Thermoelectric Materials
  2. 3d TE sample
  3. 3d thermoelectric metamaterial
  4. Novel 3d
  5. Energy consumption
  6. Renewable energy source
  7. TE material
  8. Electrical energy
  9. Thermoelectric material
  10. Low carbon power generation
  11. TE device
  12. Thermal waste heat
  13. Thermal property
  14. Thermoelectric technology
  15. New breed

Related Pages

UKRI project entry

UK Project Locations