This invention belongs to the field of thermoelectric conversion and heat recovery, in particular relates to an asymmetric PN junction thermoelectric couple structure and its parameter determination method. Compared with traditional symmetric PN junction thermoelectric couple structure, the present invention can improve the output performance of the PN junction thermoelectric couple and improve its thermoelectric conversion efficiency.
In recent years, the energy problem is becoming more and more serious. Various countries have issued relevant policies, such as increasing oil prices, promoting new energy vehicles, etc., to control the exploitation and utilization of non-renewable energy (e.g. oil, coal and natural gas). On the other hand, energy technologies such as nuclear power, hydropower, wind power, photovoltaic power and thermoelectricity don't need to consume fossil fuels, and attract great attention at home and abroad. Among them, photovoltaic and thermoelectricity are clean energy technologies that generate electricity by utilizing directional movement of carriers of semiconductors which are generated under the reaction of solar radiation and temperature difference, and have the advantages of permanence, cleanness and no moving parts, etc. At present, the photovoltaic technology develops rapidly, and has achieved a great number of mature applications. However, thermoelectric technology is still in the development stage of commercialization due to its high material cost and low conversion efficiency.
Thanks to the development of modern technology, the performance of thermoelectric materials has been greatly improved. Thermoelectric technology starts to be widely used in the field of heat recovery, such as automobile exhaust waste heat recovery, industrial waste heat recovery, etc. In addition, due to the low output voltage of a single PN junction thermoelectric couple, a number of PN junctions are generally connected in series to form a thermoelectric power generation module, so that the output voltage can reach an energy level that can be recycled. However, thermoelectric power generation module is only a combination of many PN junctions in series. In the research, it is often simplified. A single PN junction is taken as the research object for structure optimization (such as hexagonal semiconductor structure, segmented semiconductor structure and pyramid semiconductor structure), so as to achieve higher output power and thermoelectric conversion efficiency. However, these structural optimization methods ignore the essence that PN junction is formed by p-type semiconductor and n-type semiconductor in series. Both p-type semiconductor and n-type semiconductor use the same structural size and the same number of thermoelectric materials. In practical applications, in order to make p-type semiconductors rich in holes and n-type semiconductors rich in electrons, the thermoelectric materials and doping concentration used by P-electrode and N-electrode are different, causing the differences in parameters of thermoelectric materials of P-electrode and N-electrode. When the PN junction works in the same temperature difference, the current density generated by P-electrode is different from the current density generated by N-electrode, so that the overall output current of the PN junction is limited by the smaller current density.
The present invention serves the purpose of providing an asymmetric PN junction thermoelectric couple structure and its parameter determination method, in order to overcome the overall output current limitation problem of PN junction due to the inconsistent material parameters of p-type semiconductor and n-type semiconductor, to improve the overall output and thermoelectric conversion efficiency of PN junction thermoelectric couple, and to achieve higher output performance under the same usage amount of thermoelectric material.
The purpose of the present invention is realized by the following technical schemes:
An asymmetric PN junction thermoelectric couple structure includes ceramic plates in opposite arrangement, copper electrodes, p-type semiconductor and n-type semiconductor with the same height, where the top and bottom ends of the p-type semiconductor and n-type semiconductor are connected in series by copper electrodes, and are sandwiched between the top and bottom ceramic plates, wherein the sum of length of the p-type semiconductor Lp and the length of n-type semiconductor Ln is 2L, and L is the initial length of p-type semiconductor and n-type semiconductor; The length of the p-type semiconductor Lp is L±i×Δl, and the length of the n-type semiconductor Ln is L∓i×Δl, where i is the number of iterations to be determined, and Δl is the length change value in each iteration calculation of the p-type semiconductor and the n-type semiconductor; the total length of copper electrode in contact with the top ends of p-type semiconductor and n-type semiconductor is 2L+Ls, where Ls is the distance between p-type semiconductor and n-type semiconductor; the length of the copper electrode in contact with the bottom end of the p-type semiconductor is Lp+Ls/2, and the length of the copper electrode in contact with the bottom end of the n-type semiconductor is Ln+Ls/2.
A method for determining the parameters of asymmetric PN junction thermoelectric couple structure includes: calculating the integral mean values of electrical resistivity of p-type semiconductor (
Further, if
Further, the specific processes for determining the length of p-type semiconductor and n-type semiconductor when
Further, the boundary conditions for calculating Peltier heat are as follows:
On the contact surfaces of the p-type semiconductor and n-type semiconductor with the bottom copper electrodes, the temperature of bottom copper electrodes equals the temperature of p-type semiconductor and n-type semiconductor, that is Tco|z=H
where z=H1+H2 represents the coordinate axis positions of the contact surfaces;
On the contact surfaces of the p-type semiconductor and n-type semiconductor with the top copper electrodes, the temperature of top copper electrodes equals the temperature of p-type semiconductor and n-type semiconductor, that is Tco|z=H
where z=H1+H2+H3 represents the coordinate axis positions of the contact surfaces.
Further, the current boundary conditions are: on the left end surface of the bottom copper electrode and the left end surface of the resistance, both surfaces are set to be grounded, that is, the voltage is zero; on the right end surface of the bottom copper electrode and the right end surface of the resistance, both surfaces are set to be connected electrically, that is, the voltages are equal.
Furthermore, the temperature boundary conditions are: the contact surfaces of the PN junction thermoelectric couple with the environment are set as adiabatic boundary; the bottom surface of the bottom ceramic plate is set as high temperature boundary, and the top surface of the top ceramic plate is set as low temperature boundary.
The beneficial effects of the present invention are as follows:
The present invention provides an asymmetrical PN junction thermoelectric couple structure and its parameter optimization method. The p-type semiconductor and n-type semiconductor of the asymmetric PN junction thermoelectric couple structure have different cross-sectional areas, wherein the length of the p-type semiconductor is L±i×Δl, and the length of the n-type semiconductor is L∓i×Δl; by solving the differential equations of PN junction thermoelectric couple, the overall output power of PN junction is obtained; the appropriate Δl value is selected, the iterative solution is carried out for i times, and the maximum output power of PN junction thermoelectric couple is finally obtained, so as to determine the length size of p-type semiconductor and n-type semiconductor; the present invention can improve the output power of PN junction thermoelectric couple, guide the optimization of traditional PN junction thermoelectric couple structure, save thermoelectric materials, and reduce the material cost of thermoelectric power generation module to a certain extent.
The technical schemes of the present invention are described below in combination with the drawings, the specific structure of PN junction thermoelectric couple and its material parameters.
As shown in
As shown in
Step 1, calculating the integral mean value of electrical resistivity of the p-type semiconductor (
(1) Calculating the integral mean value of electrical resistivity of the p-type semiconductor
where Th and Tc are the hot-end and cold-end temperature of the PN junction thermoelectric couple respectively, and ρp(T) is the electrical resistivity of the p-type semiconductor;
(2) Calculating the integral mean value of electrical resistivity of the n-type semiconductor
where ρn(T) is the electrical resistivity of the n-type semiconductor;
Step 2, establishing the differential equations of the PN junction thermoelectric couple;
(1) The energy conservation equation of the p-type semiconductor is:
∇·(λp(T)∇Tp)=−ρp(T)
where
(2) The energy conservation equation of the n-type semiconductor is:
∇·(λn(T)∇Tn)=−ρn(T)
where Tn is the temperature of the n-type semiconductor;
(3) The energy conservation equation of the copper electrodes is:
∇·(λco∇T)=−ρco
where λ0 and ρco are the thermal conductivity and electrical resistivity of the copper electrodes respectively;
(4) The energy conservation equation of the ceramic plates is:
∇·(λce∇T)=0 (6)
where λce is the thermal conductivity of the ceramic plates;
(5) In addition, the electrical field density vector of the p-type semiconductor and the n-type semiconductor is:
Ē=−∇ϕ+α∇T (7)
where Ē is the electrical field density vector, ϕ is the electric potential difference, and α is the Seebeck coefficient;
(6) p-type semiconductor, n-type semiconductor, copper electrodes, and resistance follow the current conservation equations, which are:
where ρ is the material electrical resistivity;
Step 3, as shown in
(1) On the contact surface B between the p-type semiconductor and the bottom copper electrode and the contact surface F between the n-type semiconductor and the bottom copper electrode, the following equations are satisfied:
The temperature of the bottom copper electrodes equals the temperature of the p-type semiconductor and the n-type semiconductor, that is:
T
co|z=H
+H
=T
P,N|z=H
+H
(10)
The heat conduction of the bottom copper electrodes equals the heat conduction of the p-type semiconductor and n-type semiconductor plus the Peltier heat of the p-type semiconductor and n-type semiconductor, that is:
where z=H1+H2 represents the coordinate axis positions of the contact surfaces B and F;
(2) On the contact surface C between the p-type semiconductor and the top copper electrode and the contact surface E between the n-type semiconductor and the top copper electrode, the following equations are satisfied:
The temperature of the top copper electrodes equals the temperature of the p-type semiconductor and n-type semiconductor, that is:
T
co|z=H
+H
H
=T
P,N|z=H
+H
H
(12)
The heat conduction of the top copper electrodes equals the heat conduction of the p-type semiconductor and n-type semiconductor plus the Peltier heat of the p-type semiconductor and n-type semiconductor, that is:
where z=H1+H2+H3 represents the coordinate axis positions of the contact surfaces C and E;
(3) The current boundary conditions about the connection between the load resistance and the copper electrodes are:
On the left end surface of the bottom copper electrode A and the left end surface of the resistance J, both A and J are set to be grounded, that is, the voltage is zero; on the right end surface of the bottom copper electrode G and the right end surface of the resistance I, G and I are set to be connected electrically, that is, the voltages are equal;
(4) The temperature boundary conditions are:
The contact surfaces of the PN junction thermoelectric couple with the environment are set as adiabatic boundary; the bottom surface of the bottom ceramic plate H is set as high temperature boundary, that is, the temperature of surface H is TH; and the top surface of the top ceramic plate D is set as low temperature boundary, that is, the temperature of surface D is TC.
Step 4, determining an appropriate Δl which meets the condition of Δl<L/10; according to above differential equations and the settings of boundary conditions, the output voltage on both ends of the load resistance UL can be computed with the help of finite element software ANSYS; according to equation P=UL2/RL, calculating the overall output power of the PN junction thermoelectric couple P0 and P1 when i=0 and i=1; judging whether P0<P1, if so, i=i+1, returning to recalculate the overall output power of the PN junction thermoelectric couple Pi, and judging whether Pi<Pi+1 again, ending the loop until Pi≥Pi+1; obtaining that when
The used thermoelectric material of the PN junction thermoelectric couple in this example is BiSbTeSe based material, and the parameters of BiSbTeSe-based thermoelectric material of p-type semiconductor and n-type semiconductor are listed in Table 1.
3.612 × 10−10 T4
In addition, the relative size parameters of PN junction and other parameters are listed in Table 2.
The integral mean value of electrical resistivity of the p-type semiconductor (
The specific embodiment is described above in detail according to the technical schemes of the present invention. According to the technical schemes of the present invention, the person skilled in this art can propose a variety of mutually replaceable structure modes and implementation modes, without departing from the essence of the present invention. Therefore, the specific embodiment described above, and the drawings are only exemplary illustration of the technical solutions of the present invention, and should not be regarded as the whole of the present invention or as limitation to the technical schemes of the invention.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
---|---|---|---|
201910179839.9 | Mar 2019 | CN | national |
Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind |
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PCT/CN2019/078587 | 3/19/2019 | WO | 00 |