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• Tomeš, P
• Trottmann, M
• Suter, C
• Aguirre, M
• Steinfeld, A
• Haueter, P
• Weidenkaff, A
• [+] on Google Scholar
• Tomeš, P
• Trottmann, M
• Suter, C
• Aguirre, M
• Steinfeld, A
• Haueter, P
• Weidenkaff, A
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• Tomeš, P
• Trottmann, M
• Suter, C
• Aguirre, M
• Steinfeld, A
• Haueter, P
• Weidenkaff, A

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Materials 2010, 3(4), 2801-2814; doi:10.3390/ma3042801

Article

Thermoelectric Oxide Modules (TOMs) for the Direct Conversion of Simulated Solar Radiation into Electrical Energy

Petr Tomeš ^1,* , Matthias Trottmann ¹ , Clemens Suter ² , Myriam Heidi Aguirre ¹ , Aldo Steinfeld ^2,3 , Philipp Haueter ²  and Anke Weidenkaff ¹

¹ Solid State Chemistry and Catalysis, EMPA, 8600 Duebendorf, Switzerland ² Department of Mechanical and Process Engineering, ETH Zurich, 8092 Zurich, Switzerland ³ Solar Technology Laboratory, Paul Scherrer Institute, 5232 Villigen, Switzerland

* Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.

Received: 8 January 2010; in revised form: 24 March 2010 / Accepted: 12 April 2010 / Published: 15 April 2010

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Novel Thermoelectric Materials and Applications)

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Abstract: The direct conversion of concentrated high temperature solar heat into electrical energy was demonstrated with a series of four–leg thermoelectric oxide modules (TOM). These temperature stable modules were not yet optimized for high efficiency conversion, but served as proof-of-principle for high temperature conversion. They were constructed by connecting two p- (La_1.98Sr_0.02CuO₄) and two n-type (CaMn_0.98Nb_0.02O₃) thermoelements electrically in series and thermally in parallel. The temperature gradient ΔT was applied by a High–Flux Solar Simulator source (HFSS) which generates a spectrum similar to solar radiation. The influence of the graphite layer coated on the hot side of the Al₂O₃ substrate compared to the uncoated surface on ΔT, P_max and η was studied in detail. The measurements show an almost linear temperature profile along the thermoelectric legs. The maximum output power of 88.8 mW was reached for a TOM with leg length of 5 mm at ΔT = 622 K. The highest conversion efficiency η was found for a heat flux of 4–8 W cm^-2 and the dependence of η on the leg length was investigated.

Keywords: thermoelectricity; thermoelectric converter; solar; heat transfer; radiation; modelling

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