Patent Application
20130087251
This application claims the priority benefits of Taiwan application serial no. 100136273, filed on Oct. 6, 2011, and Taiwan application serial no. 101114572, filed on Apr. 24, 2012. The entirety of each of the above-mentioned patent applications is hereby incorporated by reference herein and made a part of specification.
The disclosure relates to a thermoelectric alloy material and a thermoelectric element capable of enhancing electrical conductivity.
With the recent trend in energy saving and carbon reduction, advanced countries all devoted into the development of environment protection technology such as power generation from wind power, hydraulic power, biomass energy, and solar energy. Currently, most of daily equipments such as vehicles, appliance and the like generate waste heat. Accordingly, effective utilization of renewable energy can help alleviating global warming.
Since the element constituted by thermoelectric material can be converted between thermal energy and electrical energy directly and the thermoelectric module constituted by the element does not require a dynamic component, is reliable and quiet, and does not require combustion, the thermoelectric module is thus environmental friendly. Moreover, the thermoelectric module is light, compact, and portable and has consequently become one of the targets in developing green energy technology as those in U.S. Pat. No. 7,849,909 and U.S. Pat. No. 7,851,692.
A thermoelectric alloy material capable of improving electrical conductivity and thermoelectric property is introduced herein.
A thermoelectric element having a P-type material capable of enhancing electrical conductivity is introduced herein.
A thermoelectric alloy material is introduced herein. The thermoelectric alloy material includes a Half-Heusler (HH) composition as a matrix. The thermoelectric alloy material is represented by the following formula (I):
(Zra1Hfb1)x(Fec1Cod1)y(Sbe1Snf1)z (I)
In formula (I), 0<a1<1, 0<b1<1, 0<c1<1, 0<d1<1, 0<e1<1, 0<f1<1, a1+b1=1, c1+d1=1, e1+f1=1, c1≦f1, and 0.25≦x, y, z≦0.35.
A thermoelectric element including the thermoelectric alloy material as a P-type material therein is introduced herein.
In light of the foregoing, the thermoelectric material in the disclosure includes a heterogeneous composition generated from the thermoelectric alloy material such as Fe so that an HH thermoelectric matrix (e.g. ZrHfCoSbSn) forms an interface with high conductivity (e.g. a heterogeneous structure in a FeSn phase), thereby enhancing the overall conductivity and thermoelectric property of the thermoelectric alloy material.
Several exemplary embodiments accompanied with figures are described in detail below to further describe the disclosure in details.
The disclosure contains at least one color photograph. Copies of the disclosure publication with the color photographs will be provided by the Patent & Trademark Office upon request and payment of the necessary fee. The accompanying drawings are included to provide further understanding, and are incorporated in and constitute a part of this specification. The drawings illustrate exemplary embodiments and, together with the description, serve to explain the principles of the disclosure.
A thermoelectric alloy material is introduced in the disclosure. The thermoelectric alloy material includes a Half-Heusler (HH) composition as a matrix. The thermoelectric alloy material is represented by the following formula (I):
(Zra1Hfb1)x(Fec1Cod1)y(Sbe1Snf1)z (I)
In formula (I), 0<a1<1, 0<b1<1, 0<c1<1, 0<d1<1, 0<e1<1, 0<f1<1, a1+b1=1, c1+d1=1, e1+f1=1, c1≦f1, and 0.25≦x, y, z≦0.35.
In the following, several examples are shown to illustrate the disclosure.
Step 1: Prepare for a thermoelectric alloy material. In detail, elements Zr, Hf, Co, Sn, Sb, and Fe in an HH alloy are rinsed and then dispensed according a composition displayed in Table 1.
Step 2: Perform a high temperature melting reaction to the composition in the step 1, generally the reaction is heated to 1400° C. or above for melting the elements and to form a solid solution.
Step 3: Rapid solidification ,the cooling rate is selected a range form 20° C./sec to 100° C./sec.
Perform the same steps in experiment 1, the only difference lies in the amounts of the compositions.
Perform the same steps in experiment 1, the only difference lies in the amounts of the compositions.
Perform the same steps in experiment 1, the differences are that the composition herein does not include Fe and the amounts of the compositions are different.
Perform the same steps in experiment 1, the differences are that the composition herein does not include Fe and the amounts of the compositions are different.
Perform the same steps in experiment 1, the differences are that the composition herein does not include Fe and the amounts of the compositions are different.
The thermoelectric alloy materials formed undergo property measurement and analysis including an XRD analysis, an SEM analysis, and a thermoelectric property analysis.
The result of the thermoelectric property analysis is listed in Table 1.
As depicted in Table 1, the thermoelectric alloy material in the disclosure contains a suitable amount of Fe and thus has superior conductivity comparing to those thermoelectric materials not containing Fe.
The result of elemental analysis from the thermoelectric alloy material shown in
In summary, the disclosure utilizes the addition of Fe to synthesize the thermoelectric alloy material with the heterogeneous composition, and the heterogeneous composition has high conductivity, does not have the HH structure, and is generated caused by the supersaturated precipitation. As a consequence, the electrical conductivity of the overall material is increased and an interface is formed/evenly distributed in-situ in the fabrication, thereby enhancing the electrical conductivity of the thermoelectric alloy material effectively.
It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications and variations can be made to the structure of the disclosed embodiments without departing from the scope or spirit of the disclosure. In view of the foregoing, it is intended that the disclosure cover modifications and variations of this disclosure provided they fall within the scope of the following claims and their equivalents.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 100136273 | Oct 2011 | TW | national |
| 101114572 | Apr 2012 | TW | national |
