Realizing Ultrahigh Near-Room-Temperature Thermoelectric Figure of Merit for N-Type Mg(Sb,Bi) through Grain Boundary Complexion Engineering with Niobium.

Despite decades of extensive research on thermoelectric materials, BiTe alloys have dominated room-temperature applications. However, recent advancements have highlighted the potential of alternative candidates, notably MgSb-MgBi alloys, for low- to mid-temperature ranges. This study optimizes the low-temperature composition of this alloy system through Nb addition (MgNb(SbBi)Te), characterizing composition, microstructure, and transport properties.

Printing thermoelectric inks toward next-generation energy and thermal devices.

The ability of thermoelectric (TE) materials to convert thermal energy to electricity and highlights them as a promising candidate for sustainable energy applications. Despite considerable increases in the figure of merit of thermoelectric materials in the past two decades, there is still a prominent need to develop scalable synthesis and flexible manufacturing processes to convert high-efficiency materials into high-performance devices. Scalable printing techniques provide a versatile solution to not only fabricate both inorganic and organic TE materials with fine control over the compositions and microstructures, but also manufacture thermoelectric devices with optimized geometric and structural designs that lead to improved efficiency and system-level performances.