Slide 2 31 % 23 % 20 % 19 % 3 % 1000 MW nuclear power plant: o 650 MW waste heat o 3 % ≈ 20 MW ≈ 50,000 homes 300-500 W from exhaust gases: o 2 % lower fuel consumption o 2.4 Mt reduction in CO2 Thermoelectric generators allow waste heat to be recovered as electricity TEGs with ~3 % energy recovery (𝑍𝑇 = 1) are considered industrially viable 1. Provisional UK greenhouse gas emissions national statistics (published March 2022) 2. EPSRC Thermoelectric Network Roadmap (2018) Dr Jonathan Skelton
91, 094306 (2015) Dr Jonathan Skelton The simplest model for 𝜅"#$$ is the single-mode relaxation time approximation (SM-RTA) - a closed solution to the phonon Boltzmann transport equations 𝜿#$%% (𝑇) = 1 𝑁𝑉 . & 𝐶&(𝑇)𝒗& ⊗ 𝒗&𝜏&(𝑇) 𝐶% - phonon heat capacities 𝒗% - phonon group velocities 𝜏% - phonon lifetimes (inverse linewidths Γ% ) 𝑁 - number of 𝒒 in summation 𝑉 - unit cell volume MCC Conference, 29th June 2023 | Slide 6
June 2023 | Slide 9 𝜿./00 ≈ 𝜏1234× 1 𝑁𝑉 2 5 𝜿5 𝜏5 = 1 𝑁𝑉 2 5 𝐶5 𝒗5 ⊗ 𝒗5 ×𝜏1234 J. Tang and J. M. Skelton, J. Phys.: Condens. Matter 33, 164002 (2021) J. M. Skelton, J. Mater. Chem. C 9, 11772 (2021)
June 2023 | Slide 10 𝜿./00 ≈ 𝜏1234× 1 𝑁𝑉 2 5 𝜿5 𝜏5 = 1 𝑁𝑉 2 5 𝐶5 𝒗5 ⊗ 𝒗5 ×𝜏1234 J. Tang and J. M. Skelton, J. Phys.: Condens. Matter 33, 164002 (2021) J. M. Skelton, J. Mater. Chem. C 9, 11772 (2021)
June 2023 | Slide 15 𝜏: = 1 2𝜋Γ5 Γ5 ≈ 36𝜋 ℏ8 𝑁8 (𝒒5 , 𝜔5 )×𝑃5 and A. Togo et al., Phys. Rev. B 91, 094306 (2015) B. Wei, J. Flitcroft and J. M. Skelton, Molecules 27 (19), 6431 (2022)
June 2023 | Slide 21 𝐶𝑚𝑐𝑚 SnSe: ? Low symmetry ü Large(-ish) cell (𝑛2 = 4) ü Sn constrained to a locally-symmetric environment 𝜋-cubic SnSe: ? High symmetry ü (Very) large cell (𝑛2 = 64) û Sn local geometry similar to 𝑃𝑛𝑚𝑎 phase R. E. Abutbul et al., CrystEngComm 18, 1918 (2016)
the 𝜅"#$$ at the level of individual phonon modes, which can be analysed to quantify the separate contributions of: o Group velocity vs. lifetimes - the CRTA model o Anharmonicity vs. selection rules - the constant interaction-strength model For a series of ten chalcogenides, we find that: o Low group velocities are favoured by complex structures with large unit cells o Strong phonon anharmonicity is favoured by structures where the tetrel atoms are constrained to locally-symmetric environments... o ... but less symmetric structures allow for a large number of allowed scattering pathways These competing factors are optimally balanced in 𝐶𝑚𝑐𝑚 SnSe, which has: o a larger and lower-symmetry unit cell compared to 𝑅3𝑚/𝐹𝑚0 3𝑚 phases... o ... but with the Sn atoms are constrained to a locally symmetric environment The trends in anharmonicity can be explained in terms of the revised lone pair model MCC Conference, 29th June 2023 | Slide 22