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Characterization of bismuth telluride aerogels for thermoelectric applications

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 March 2011

Wenting Dong ,
Wendell Rhine ,
Greg Caggiano ,
Owen R. Evans ,
George Gould ,
John White ,
Jeff Sharp ,
Pat Gilbert ,
Shreyashi Ganguly  and
Stephanie L. Brock
Wenting Dong
Affiliation:
Aspen Aerogels, Inc., Northborough, MA 01532, USA
Wendell Rhine
Affiliation:
Aspen Aerogels, Inc., Northborough, MA 01532, USA
Greg Caggiano
Affiliation:
Aspen Aerogels, Inc., Northborough, MA 01532, USA
Owen R. Evans
Affiliation:
Aspen Aerogels, Inc., Northborough, MA 01532, USA
George Gould
Affiliation:
Aspen Aerogels, Inc., Northborough, MA 01532, USA
John White
Affiliation:
Marlow Industries, Inc., Dallas, TX75238, USA
Jeff Sharp
Affiliation:
Marlow Industries, Inc., Dallas, TX75238, USA
Pat Gilbert
Affiliation:
Marlow Industries, Inc., Dallas, TX75238, USA
Shreyashi Ganguly
Affiliation:
Wayne State University, Detroit, MI 48202, USA
Stephanie L. Brock
Affiliation:
Wayne State University, Detroit, MI 48202, USA
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Abstract

Refrigeration, air conditioning, and other cooling requirements in buildings, industry, and transportation sectors account for about 10 quads of U.S. primary energy consumption. Therefore, advanced technologies for space cooling in buildings and vehicles – as well as for refrigeration in residential, commercial, and industrial applications – that are more energy efficient, avoid net direct greenhouse gas emissions, reduce lifecycle costs, and can impact large markets are needed. Although current technologies are reaching their efficiency limits, thermoelectric (TE) materials can be used for cooling applications and have potential for significant improvements. Compared to traditional bulk phase TE materials, literature results suggest that nanometer-scale materials allow additional opportunities to improve the efficiency of TE materials. Aerogels are one type of nano-material that offers opportunities to increase the efficiency of TE materials by controlling particle size, particle composition and by reducing the thermal conductivity. Bismuth telluride (Bi2Te3) is the most studied TE material and our objective was to produce bismuth telluride aerogels with controlled microstructures and thermal conductivities to increase the TE figure of merit. Aspen Aerogels developed a novel synthesis method to prepare Bi2Te3 aerogels using the principles of colloidal chemistry and sol-gel chemistry. The reaction conditions were investigated and optimized so that gels could be obtained at low reaction temperatures. The gels were aged and dried using supercritical CO2. The aerogels were characterized by BET, XRD, and SEM. The best aerogels were hot pressed and Seebeck coefficients were determined. The synthetic approach developed and the properties of the aerogels will be presented and compared with Bi2Te3 aerogels and materials prepared by other methods.

Keywords

aerogelthermoelectricnanostructure
Type
Research Article
Information
MRS Online Proceedings Library (OPL) , Volume 1306: Symposium BB – Aerogels and Aerogel-Inspired Materials , 2011 , mrsf10-1306-bb12-02
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 2011

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References

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