NSEF Young Investigator Award Lecture - Nanostructured Composite Materials for Thermoelectric Applications

The rapid development of nanomaterials in the past decade has provided a possibility of directly converting waste heat back to electricity based on the thermoelectric Seebeck effect. In the past few years, we have developed a transformative approach to pioneered low cost and scalable solution-phase growth methods to mass produce thermoelectric nanowires and nanowire heterostructures to match the physical and economic magnitudes of energy use and economical entertainment in the manufacture/recycling. These nanostructured thermoelectric materials show a significantly enhanced performance compared to the bulk crystals based on the quantum confinement, energy filtering, and minority carrier blocking. In addition, our research in flexible nanostructure-based thermoelectric systems further enabled the waste heat harvesting from virtually any shaped surface.