Disruptive new concepts in thermoelectricityOA

Over the last few years,alongside a remarkable effort to improve the efficiency and reliability of various classes of thermoelectric materials,several novel ideas have surfaced to overcome factors limiting heat conversion and refrigeration,both on the materials side and at the device level.On the first count,new strategies have emerged taking advantage of the growing capabilities of modeling charge carrier and phonon transport in defective materials,engineering defects to evade the materials efficiency limits set by the contrasting need of decreasing materials thermal and electrical conductivity.