Understanding Oxidation Resistance of Half-Heusler Alloys for in-Air High Temperature Sustainable Thermoelectric Generators

• DOI: 10.1021/acsami.0c08413
• Publication Date: 2020-07-16T20:04:12Z
• Authors: Han Byul Kang; Udara Saparamadu; Amin Nozariasbmarz; Wenjie Li; Hangtian Zhu; Bed Poudel; Shashank Priya
• Keywords: Thermoelectric generator; Figure of Merit

High temperature waste heat recovery has gained tremendous interest to generate useful electricity while reducing the harmful impact on environment. Thermoelectric (TE) solid-state materials enable direct conversion of into with high efficiency, thereby offering a practical solution for recovery. Half-Heusler (hH) alloys are leading TE medium applications, as they exhibit figure merit and mechanical strength at temperatures 973 K. Here we investigate most promising hH represented MNiSn, MCoSb, NbFeSb systems (M = Hf, Zr, Ti) provide fundamental understanding their in-air thermal stability under realistic operating conditions required energy generation. The oxidation resistance is crucial deployment in extreme environments without vacuum sealing. n-type MNiSn p-type compounds found excellent 873 enhanced through presence an intermetallic Ni-Sn layer Nb-TiO2 double (Nb,Ti)FeSb. A unicouple thermoelectric generator (TEG) fabricated from thermally stable demonstrated consistent performance more than 150 h K air. These results demonstrate significance systems.