Beginning around 1990 concerns regarding refrigerant fluids and interest in cooling electronics led to renewed activity in the science and technology of alternative refrigeration. Thermoelectric cooling mechanisms, thermomagnetic effects and thermionic emission including the fundamentals of the implementation of these basic mechanisms comprise the book’s subject.
The aim of this book is threefold. First, the authors present the basic theory of thermoelasticity including discussion of both theoretical concepts and experimental aspects of the field of solid-state cooling and power generation. Second, the authors review the techniques for producing good thermoelectric materials and module design to bridge the gap between theory and application. Third, the book presents some of the research into new and novel materials that has drawn the attention of the scientific community.
Therefore the book can serve as a reference to experimentalists; however, it also proves useful to scientists coming into the field from other areas of research as well as to graduate students.
In the first Chapter, the authors specify thermoelectric and thermomagnetic phenomena, thermoelectric Peltier cooling, thermoelectric power generation, and thermomagnetic Ettingshausen cooling.
Chapter 2 is devoted to explanation of heart conduction in solids by lattice vibrations and electricity transport by band theory of solids. In Chapter 3, the authors discuss such issues as influence of carrier concentration on the properties of semiconductors, optimization of electronic properties, minimizing thermal conductivity, anisotropic thermoelements and thermoelectric cooling at very low temperatures in order to present the basic physics necessary to understand and evaluate the transport properties of thermoelectric materials. This knowledge is required in selection and optimization criteria for thermoelectric materials.
In Chapter 4, the authors outline the principles on which the measurement of the transport properties of thermoelectric materials are based. Attention is devoted to electrical conductivity, Seebeck coefficient, thermal conductivity, figure of merit, and thermogalvanomagnetic effects.
In Chapter 5, they review the general and transport properties of elemental or compound materials such as bismuth telluride, antimony telluride, bismuth selenide, elements of group V and their alloys. Moreover, there are discussed such issues as materials for thermoelectric generators, production of materials and design of modules (refrigerators and generators).
In Chapter 6, the authors review two material systems that have received enormous attention for thermoelectric applications. The “phonon-glass electron-single-crystal” (PGEC) materials would possess electronic properties normally associated with good semiconductor single crystals but would have thermal properties normally associated with amorphous materials. The Skutterudite material system and clathrate compounds are described.
In Chapter 7, the development of complex chalcogenide structures with beneficial thermoelectric properties is discussed.
The influence of boundaries on the transport of electric current or heat is discussed in Chapter 8. Interest in low-dimensional thermoelectric materials has arisen because theory and experiment vindicate performance advantages compared to bulk materials.
Finally, the last Chapter is devoted to basic physics of thermionic refrigeration. Transport both in a vacuum and in the solid state are treated. Although there does not yet seem to be a practical refrigerator based on thermionic effects, there are good reasons for thinking that such a device will appear in the not too distant future.