Project description
Rethinking thermoelectric materials
Thermoelectric materials can turn heat directly into electricity and thus provide very promising solutions for energy generation and refrigeration. However, current thermoelectric semiconductors find limited real-world applications as they suffer from low power output and poor mechanical stability. The ERC-funded METHEL project proposes a different approach that exploits metals as thermoelectric materials, despite their traditionally weak thermoelectric response. Researchers plan to increase the thermoelectric efficiency of metals by precisely tuning how electrons scatter between energy bands, a mechanism largely unexplored so far. Scientists will improve performance by using widely available materials and controlling how electric charges move through them. This approach could lead to more robust and efficient thermoelectric devices, opening new possibilities for future energy and cooling technologies.
Objective
Thermoelectric (TE) materials directly transform thermal into electrical energy and vice versa, making them promising for a plethora of applications in refrigeration or power generation. However, state-of-the-art semiconductors in the focus of current research did not make the leap into broad applications due to low power density and poor mechanical properties. Metallic systems would be superior in this regard, but remained largely neglected by the TE community over the past decades due to their small TE effect.
This fundamental research project focuses on realizing high TE performance in metals via tuning of electronic interband scattering – an innovative enhancement principle cardinally different from those applied so far in semiconductors. Using this paradigm, we want to realize
- unprecedented TE power factors
- metallic TE with superior functional properties from highly abundant, cheap materials
- tight control of energy-dependent electronic transport by scattering off topological flat bands
Despite enormous efforts for decades, largely focusing on a reduction of thermal conductivity in semiconductors, these intriguing research issues remain unsolved calling for a novel concept.
We tackle these issues by focusing on metals, where the lattice thermal conductivity is irrelevant compared to the electronic contribution (Wiedemann-Franz law), thus confining the multi-parameter optimization problem to a sole enhancement of the Seebeck coefficient S. The latter we achieve by selectively reducing the mobility of holes (or electronic carriers) by interband scattering from localized states, leveraged by tuning of electronic bandwidth and geometrical frustration – concepts introduced from correlated electron physics. Promoted by the PI’s versatile expertise in studying charge transport in solids, METHEL explores high-performance metallic TE by the synergistic combination of synthesis, spectroscopy, microscopy and high-throughput computational materials screening.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- engineering and technology mechanical engineering thermodynamic engineering
- natural sciences physical sciences optics microscopy
- natural sciences physical sciences electromagnetism and electronics semiconductivity
- social sciences law
- natural sciences physical sciences optics spectroscopy
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Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC)
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Topic(s)
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Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
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Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
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Call for proposal
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Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) ERC-2025-COG
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1040 Wien
Austria
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