A Brief Review on Thermoelectric Materials and their Applications

Waste heat recovery methods are the most promising technologies adopted to reduce the waste heat problem. The waste heat exploitation should be avoided and this can be done by moving towards the more efficient energy production methods, proper isolation of sources, by keeping the operations and the devices simple and flexible by optimization of energy and systematic control patterns. In such cases thermoelectric materials are very helpful as they are flexible, small in sizeand can be operated at less costs. The process of converting unwanted heat in to useful energy is the main advantage of thermoelectric materials. The disadvantage of these thermoelectric devices is their low efficiency. If the efficiency is improved, then the thermoelectric devices can act as a source for energy scarcity. The paper concentrates on discussing the factors that affect the thermoelectric efficiency and the means by which its figure of merit ZT can be improved. The main focus is to develop thermo electric material of good performance and to interplay between quantities like seebeck coefficient S, electrical conductivity ? and thermal coefficient ?. This paper briefs the various developments done in the field of thermoelectric materials and reviews the results that can be helpful.