Symposium ES4-Thermoelectric Polymers and Composites—Nontraditional Routes to High Efficiency

The most widely used thermoelectric materials are based on inorganic compound semiconductors, many of which rely on rare or toxic elements, require high temperature processing, and/or remain mechanically inflexible. It would be desirable to develop alternative thermoelectric materials that use safer and more common elements, lend themselves to lower temperature and print processing, and can be fabricated on flexible substrates. Even more enticing are materials displaying electronic and/or thermal effects not normally associated with inorganic semiconductors that could lead to performance enhancements beyond those that have been considered limiting over the last several decades.

This symposium will cover design, synthesis, processing, implementation, and performance of thermoelectric materials based on organic, polymeric, inclusion, and hybrid materials that represent departures from the classic inorganic thermoelectric phases. Theoretical principles for the design and activity of the materials are expected to further the advances in these experimental activities. For example, the ability to tune densities of states through design of molecular subunits or to tune electronic and thermal transport phenomena through interfacial effects at composite grain boundaries represent opportunities not easily available in bulk compound semiconductors. These phenomena may not be as reliant on the heavy elements or on high temperature annealing as are the compound semiconductors, and may be preparable from liquid phase precursors. The design of compatible n-type and p-type semiconductor pairs may also be more straightforward using these alternative strategies.

Topics will include:

Design and synthesis of polymers and other bulk matrices for thermoelectrics
Synthesis of inclusion phases, including micro and nanostructures, nanowires and clusters, and molecular dopants
Efficient processing of the above materials into device and module form
Device architectures for evaluation and application of these materials as thermoelectrics
Electronic and thermal characterization of polymer and hybrid thermoelectric materials
Scanning probe and other microscopic and in situ techniques for characterization of these materials
Computational modeling of material structures, energy levels, transport mechanisms, and power conversion
Demonstration of polymer and hybrid thermoelectrics in specific application settings

Invited Speakers:

ES4_Thermoelectric Polymers and Composites—Nontraditional Routes to High Efficiency _0 (University of Illinois, USA)
ES4_Thermoelectric Polymers and Composites—Nontraditional Routes to High Efficiency _1 (University of California, Santa Barbara, USA)
ES4_Thermoelectric Polymers and Composites—Nontraditional Routes to High Efficiency _2 (Chinese Academy of Sciences, China)
ES4_Thermoelectric Polymers and Composites—Nontraditional Routes to High Efficiency _3 (Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Republic of Korea)
ES4_Thermoelectric Polymers and Composites—Nontraditional Routes to High Efficiency _4 (National Renewable Energy Laboratory, USA)
ES4_Thermoelectric Polymers and Composites—Nontraditional Routes to High Efficiency _5 (Nanyang University, Singapore)
ES4_Thermoelectric Polymers and Composites—Nontraditional Routes to High Efficiency _6 (University of Pennsylvania, USA)
ES4_Thermoelectric Polymers and Composites—Nontraditional Routes to High Efficiency _7 (Linkoping University, Sweden)
ES4_Thermoelectric Polymers and Composites—Nontraditional Routes to High Efficiency _8 (Dresden/King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Saudi Arabia)
ES4_Thermoelectric Polymers and Composites—Nontraditional Routes to High Efficiency _9 (Beijing University, China)
ES4_Thermoelectric Polymers and Composites—Nontraditional Routes to High Efficiency _10 (University of California, Santa Barbara, USA)
ES4_Thermoelectric Polymers and Composites—Nontraditional Routes to High Efficiency _11 (University of Texas, USA)
ES4_Thermoelectric Polymers and Composites—Nontraditional Routes to High Efficiency _12 (Tsinghua University, China)
ES4_Thermoelectric Polymers and Composites—Nontraditional Routes to High Efficiency _13 (Cambridge University, United Kingdom)
ES4_Thermoelectric Polymers and Composites—Nontraditional Routes to High Efficiency _14 (Northwestern University, USA)
ES4_Thermoelectric Polymers and Composites—Nontraditional Routes to High Efficiency _15 (Tokyo University, Japan)
ES4_Thermoelectric Polymers and Composites—Nontraditional Routes to High Efficiency _16 (University of Colorado Boulder, USA)
ES4_Thermoelectric Polymers and Composites—Nontraditional Routes to High Efficiency _17 (Texas A&M University, USA)