Determination of Seebeck coefficient

Simultaneous determination of Seebeck coefficient and conductivity

The optimization of energy efficiency is an important issue in the 21st century. In many industrial applications (smelting furnaces, drying equipment plants, incineration plants, power plants, etc.), a large amount of waste heat is not utilized. From automobile industry to daily life, waste heat can be generated in many occasions.

Converting waste heat into electric energy is the most important challenge in the thermoelectric field. This technology can be realized through thermoelectric relays, but the conversion efficiency mainly depends on the characteristics of thermoelectric materials.

In order to obtain suitable materials, it is important to understand the relevant thermophysical properties of the materials used to describe this efficiency (such as ZT value, figure of merit coefficient). As shown in the following equation: