Symposium SS-Progress in Thermal Energy Conversion—Thermoelectric and Thermal Energy Storage Materials and Devices

This symposium will broadly cover current and emerging thermoelectric and thermal energy storage materials and devices. Part of the symposium will focus on thermoelectric (TE) materials and the other part will focus on thermal energy storage (TES) materials with joint sessions in the middle to highlight topics that are of mutual interest/overlap for both TE and TES communities.

Within the topic of thermoelectric materials and devices, a key focus will be on energy applications from direct solar conversion, waste heat conversion, cooling and vehicle applications. The symposium will focus on the significant renaissance in materials, their integration into devices and processes toward large scale production. Key is facilitating a rapid transition from basic science and to practical deployment across the broad range of emerging applications. Thermoelectric material categories should include both conventional materials (e.g., classic Se-, or Te-based, caged compounds and nanostructured multilayer/ composites) and unconventional materials like oxides, selenides and sulfides. Symposium contributions should address basic science issues or explore new phenomena (e.g., spin-Seeback effect), or address obstacles confronting the development of practical applications from emerging materials. We will have discussion of synthesis, growth mechanisms and fabrication routes; methods to improve properties important for applications; and discussions that advance understanding of fundamental material science issues are also welcomed.

As the interest in renewable energies (solar, wind and water) is steadily increasing, thermal energy storage (TES) is an essential breakthrough research area to achieve dispatchable power, higher efficiency and lower cost. TES is an enabling technology in various areas and needed anywhere where there is an energy balance that can be more efficiently used in heating or cooling. This symposium will provide state of the art research on thermal energy storage materials and devices for various applications. Opportunities will be identified in the areas of buildings, transportation and in renewable energies. To enable TES, key is materials development and therefore the focus of the symposium is identifying materials for each application that need to store high energy densities at required temperature ranges. For instance, in a concentrating solar power (CSP) plant, the TES material has the benefit to be able to store excess energy for later use to generate electricity whenever needed and at peak times. Photovoltaic (PV) power can only produce electricity when the sun is shining and efficiency is limited. TES can be stored as sensible heat resulting in a temperature change, as latent heat at constant temperature or in thermochemical reversible reactions. Abstracts will be solicited in the following areas: high-temperature materials for CSP applications, thermal battery concepts with MOFs and metal hydrides for use on-board electric vehicles for driving range extension, storage in caverns, TES for waste heat recovery, new materials for heat pumps, and new phase change materials for building applications.

Topics will include:

Thermochemical energy storage for concentrating solar power: new materials and devices
Thermal battery materials
Phase change materials in building applications
New materials for heat pumps
Thermal energy storage in transportation
Waste heat recovery
New high ZT materials, computational materials design and experimental realizatior
Thermoelectric cooling
Applications for TE materials
Synthesis and achieving multiple length scale materials on the nano and mesoscale
Phonon and electron transport properties: intrinsic behavior within grains, crystals electron correlation; interface properties
Spin-Seebeck effect, photothermal effects and topological insulators
Integration of TE modules and functional devices
Novel synthesis routes of TE, atomic layer control and self-assembly

Invited Speakers:

SS_Progress in Thermal Energy Conversion—Thermoelectric and Thermal Energy Storage Materials and Devices _0 (Sandia National Laboratories, USA)
SS_Progress in Thermal Energy Conversion—Thermoelectric and Thermal Energy Storage Materials and Devices _1 (University of California, Santa Barbara, USA)
SS_Progress in Thermal Energy Conversion—Thermoelectric and Thermal Energy Storage Materials and Devices _2 (Oak Ridge National Laboratory, USA)
SS_Progress in Thermal Energy Conversion—Thermoelectric and Thermal Energy Storage Materials and Devices _3 (University of South Florida, USA)
SS_Progress in Thermal Energy Conversion—Thermoelectric and Thermal Energy Storage Materials and Devices _4 (University of California, Davis, USA)
SS_Progress in Thermal Energy Conversion—Thermoelectric and Thermal Energy Storage Materials and Devices _5 (California Institute of Technology, USA)
SS_Progress in Thermal Energy Conversion—Thermoelectric and Thermal Energy Storage Materials and Devices _6 (Michigan State University, USA)
SS_Progress in Thermal Energy Conversion—Thermoelectric and Thermal Energy Storage Materials and Devices _7 (Lehigh University, USA)
SS_Progress in Thermal Energy Conversion—Thermoelectric and Thermal Energy Storage Materials and Devices _8 (Halotechnics, USA)
SS_Progress in Thermal Energy Conversion—Thermoelectric and Thermal Energy Storage Materials and Devices _9 (German Aerospace Lab (DLR), Germany)
SS_Progress in Thermal Energy Conversion—Thermoelectric and Thermal Energy Storage Materials and Devices _10 (Purdue University, USA)
SS_Progress in Thermal Energy Conversion—Thermoelectric and Thermal Energy Storage Materials and Devices _11 (Bucknell University, USA)
SS_Progress in Thermal Energy Conversion—Thermoelectric and Thermal Energy Storage Materials and Devices _12 (CSM, USA)
SS_Progress in Thermal Energy Conversion—Thermoelectric and Thermal Energy Storage Materials and Devices _13 (University of Michigan, USA)
SS_Progress in Thermal Energy Conversion—Thermoelectric and Thermal Energy Storage Materials and Devices _14 (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA)
SS_Progress in Thermal Energy Conversion—Thermoelectric and Thermal Energy Storage Materials and Devices _15 (Georgia Institute of Technology, USA)