Sustainable development of thermoelectric materials and devices (17/10/23)
Speaker and Affliation:
Dr. Vaithinathan Karthikeyan
Postdoc, Electronics and Nanoscale Engineering,
James Watt School of Engineering, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, United Kingdom
When?
17th October, 2023 (Tuesday), 02.30 PM (India Standard Time)
Where
K I Vasu Auditorium, Dept. of Materials Engineering, IISc, Bangalore
Biographical sketch:
Vaithinathan Karthikeyan is presently a postdoc at James Watt School of Engineering at the University of Glasgow. He did his PhD in Materials Engineering at the City University of Hong Kong. His research focuses on interdisciplinary research areas of materials science for energy harvesting devices, biosensors, neuromorphic electronics and terahertz electronics. He has published over 30 articles in journals and filed 2 patents.
Abstract:
For decades, the widespread application of thermoelectric generators has been hampered by two major limitations: heat stagnation in their legs, which limits power conversion efficiency, and the inherent brittleness of their constituents, accelerating thermoelectric generator failure. While notable progress has been made in overcoming these fundamental flaws, the state-of-the-art still grapples with an apparent mismatch between thermoelectric performance and mechanical toughness. To enhance the power conversion efficiency of thermoelectric materials and devices, we present various strategies involving defect engineering, interface engineering, and composite techniques. These strategies have been demonstrated across different families of thermoelectric materials, including metal chalcogenides, tetrahedrites, metal iodides, and other metal composites. Finally, we introduce sustainable large-scale development of thermoelectric modules using 3D printing technologies to achieve ultrahigh thermoelectric efficiencies.