2020 Virtual undergraduate Research symposium

Alloying MnGeTe2 Enables High Thermoelectric Performance


* FIRST PLACE BEST IN SHOW *


PROJECT NUMBER: 94

AUTHOR: Grace Rome, Metallurgical and Materials Engineering | MENTOR: Eric Toberer, Physics

 

ABSTRACT

Thermoelectric materials convert thermal gradients into electricity. Thermoelectrics are currently used in space applications to provide power, but they also have the potential to be used to increase energy efficiency by harnessing heat waste from various processes to produce electricity. However, to reach the point of wide-spread application, the efficiency of thermoelectric materials must be increased. This work entails investigating MnGeTe2, a high performance thermoelectric material, by doping/alloying in order to obtain a better understanding of the electronic properties. This material is lead-free and thus has a lower environmental impact than conventional thermoelectric materials. Investigations in the MnGeTe2 space was conducted by alloying with bismuth, tin, and selenium to adjust the carrier concentrations of the materials. The samples were tested for their electrical properties and compared to literature. Bismuth doping was found to improve the thermoelectric figure of merit (zT) in comparison to literature values within the same composition space. The structure of the different materials was also investigated to see if the structure deviated from known cubic structure. Our findings indicate that the material retains a cubic structure across a large composition space, indicating that there are opportunities for significant improvements of thermoelectric performance.

 

VISUAL PRESENTATION

 

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

Grace Rome is a Junior in Metallurgical and Materials Engineering working on an Energy minor. She spent 7 months interning full time at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory and loved her time there so much that she wanted to continue conducting research during the school year. She is now doing research in the Physics department at Mines with Professor Toberer. Grace is working on thermoelectric material research. She is investigating MnGeTe2, a high performance thermoelectric material, by doping/alloying in order to obtain a better understanding of the electronic properties. In the future Grace wants to continue doing research in the renewable energy materials field.

 


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