Speaker
Description
More than half of the energy produced worldwide is currently lost as waste heat and recovering a
fraction of the lost energy would have an enormous impact on global climate change. In this sense, thermoelectric materials can convert waste heat to useful electricity. However, because of their
low efficiency, high cost, and use of scarce resources, thermoelectric materials are not widely
applied. Oxygen-containing inverse perovskites can provide a potential way to reduce the cost and
enhance the sustainability of thermoelectric materials. In general, the presence of oxygen may be
expected to reduce electron mobility and hence electrical conductivity; however, our computational
studies revealed that oxygen-containing inverse perovskites have a high electrical conductivity.
Furthermore, high Seebeck coefficients were calculated, originating from multiple degenerate bands
leading to an enhanced power factor. Preliminary experimental results confirm the high electrical
conductivity of these materials.
