Special Issue "Novel Thermoelectric Materials and Applications"

Guest Editor
Dr. Thomas Lippert
Materials Group, Research Department General Energy, Paul Scherrer Institut, CH-5232 Villigen, Switzerland
Website: http://people.web.psi.ch/lippert/
E-Mail:
Interests: thin films; oxides; materials for energy applications; thin film deposition; pulsed laser deposition; laser ablation; polymers for laser applications

Guest Editor
Prof. Dr. Anke Weidenkaff
Solid State Chemistry and Catalysis Laboratory, Empa - Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Testing and Research, Ueberlandstrasse 129, CH-8600 Duebendorf, Switzerland
Website: http://www.empa.ch/abt131
E-Mail:
Interests: solid state chemistry; perovskite-type oxides and oxynitrides; materials for energy conversion technologies; crystallography; thermoelectricity; analytical chemistry: exhaust gas catalysis

2nd Thermopower Symposium - Novel Thermoelectric Materials and Applications, July 24th 2009 at Empa Dübendorf, Switzerland

Dear Colleagues,

The TEP-CH Symposium is coupled to the International Conference on Thermoelectrics ICT-ECT in Freiburg/Brsg on July 26-30 and the workshop on "Relationship between (nano)structures and thermoelectric properties" at CRISMAT Caen on July 22, 2009.

The aim of the proceedings publications of the symposium is to give an updated overview on recent research results from universities, scientific institutes as well as from industry on this exiting interdisciplinary topic to promote the development of thermoelectric materials and devices.

The topics include all aspects of thermoelectric energy conversion, such as:

• Theory and fundamentals of thermoelectricity
• Development of novel thermoelectric materials, including preparation techniques, innovative synthesis methods (Thin films, soft chemistry, etc.)
• Design of devices, including Micro Thermoelectric Converters
• Applications in cooling and electricity generation
• Characterisation and measurement techniques

Thomas Lipper, Ph. D.
Prof. Dr. Anke Weidenkaff
Guest Editors

Submission

All papers should be submitted to materials@mdpi.org. To be published continuously until the deadline and papers will be listed together at the special website.

Submitted papers should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere. All papers are refereed through a peer-review process. A guide for authors is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Materials is an international peer-reviewed quarterly journal published by Molecular Diversity Preservation International. Review manuscripts: Before writing their manuscripts, potential authors of review articles should forward the title and a short abstract to materials@mdpi.org. We will then provide feedback on the suitability of the topic.

Article Processing Charges (APC)

Article Processing Charges (APC) will be waived for well prepared manuscripts of invited papers. For the first two volumes of this new journal the APC are of 300 CHF (or 550 CHF per paper for those papers that require extensive additional formatting and/or English corrections).

Feature Papers:

Title: Low-Thermal-Conductivity Misfit Layered Compounds
(MS)_1+x(TiS₂)_n(M = Pb, Bi, Sn; n=1, 2) for Bulk Thermoelectric Materials
Authors: Chunlei Wan ^1,2, Yifeng Wang ¹, Ning Wang ¹ and Kunihito Koumoto ^1,2
Affiliations: ¹ Graduate School of Engineering, Nagoya University, Furo-cho, Chikusa-ku, Nagoya, 464-8603, Japan
² CREST, Japan Science and Technology Agency, Kawaguchi Center Building, 4-1-8, Honcho, Kawaguchi-shi, Saitama 332-0012, Japan; E-Mails: koumoto@apchem.nagoya-u.ac.jp, chunlei@mail.apchem.nagoya-u.ac.jp
Abstract: A series of misfit layered compounds (MS)_1+x(TiS₂)_n(M = Pb, Bi, Sn; n=1, 2) are proposed as bulk thermoelectric materials, which consist of an alternative stacking of CdI₂-type TiS₂ trigonal prism layers and rock-salt MS slabs. This naturally modulated structure shows low lattice thermal conductivity close to or even lower than the predicted minimum thermal conductivity, which has been identified as the softening and attenuation of the transverse modes of lattice wave due to the week bonding between two hetero-layers. Combined with a high power factor, the misfit layered compounds show a relatively high ZT value of about 0.3~0.4 at 400 °C.