Michigan State University

Science at the Edge

Engineering Seminar

March 6^th, 2015

11:30 a.m., Room1400 Biomedical and Physical Sciences Building

Refreshments served at 11:15 a.m.

Mercouri G. Kanatzidis

Professor of Chemistry

Northwestern University

Panoscopic all-scale architecturing for high performance thermoelectrics

Abstract

Thermoelectrics convert heat energy to electricity. The nanostructuring approach to highly efficient thermoelectrics has produced a 
paradigm shift and ushered in a new era of investigation for efficient bulk thermoelectrics.  Increasing the thermoelectric figure of merit 
can be accomplished via two general and effective approaches, nano- and meso-structuring to reduce the lattice thermal conductivity
 and altering the band structure to improve the power factor. Multiple methods of band structure engineering have been studied in this 
field but those with the ability to change the relative energy levels of the band near the Fermi energy and capable of aligning the energy 
level of the band structure of the a second phase added to the matrix are most effective.  By aligning the valence band of the matrix 
and precipitate, high power factors can be maintained while reducing the lattice thermal conductivity by increasing phonon scattering 
with nanoprecipitates of the secondary phase.  In the valence band of p-type PbQ (Q=S, Se, Te) thermoelectric materials have shown 
large improvements in ZT by adding second phases which perform the functions of nano- and meso-structuring and at the same time 
present good band alignment. This strategy has been demonstrated in several systems including p-type PbTe-SrTe, PbSe-(CdS/ZnS), 
and PbS-CdS systems. Progress using this hierarchical panoscopic approach will be reviewed.

Bio

Mercouri Kanatzidis was born in Thessaloniki, Greece in 1957. After obtaining a B. Sc from Aristotle University in Greece, he received his Ph D. in chemistry from the University of Iowa in 1984. He was a post-doctoral research associate at the University of Michigan and Northwestern University from 1985 to 1987 and is currently the the Charles E. and Emma H. Morrison Professor of Chemistry at Northwestern University. Mercouri moved to Northwestern in the fall of 2006 from Michigan State University where he was a University Distinguished Professor of Chemistry since 1987.

Mercouri also holds an appointment at Argonne National Laboratory and is the editor in chief of the Journal of Solid State Chemistry

For further information please contact Prof. Richard Lunt, Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science at [log in to unmask]

Persons with disabilities have the right to request and receive reasonable accommodation. Please call the Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science at 355-5135 at least one day prior to the seminar; requests received after this date will be met when possible.