Project Description

High-performance thermoelectric materials are essential components of automotive waste heat recovery technology. A successful technology development would save several hundred million gallons of gasoline annually. This project will address a key issue in the study of superior thermoelectric materials, the role of nanostructural features in the electronic, lattice, and mechanical properties of nanostructured bulk materials. (PbTe)1-x(AgSbTe2)x, one of the best intermediate-temperature thermoelectric materials, will be used as a model material system for this study. Lattice dynamics and stress-strain calculations will produce a phonon density of states and atomistic bond-breaking process of the materials, respectively, providing important insights into the mechanisms of the phonon scattering process, structural deformation, and failure modes.

Allocation History

Source Hours Start Date End Date
DOE INCITE PROGRAM02011-01-012011-01-31
DOE INCITE PROGRAM02011-01-012011-01-31
DOE INCITE PROGRAM02011-01-012011-01-31
DOE INCITE PROGRAM14,000,0002010-01-012010-12-31
DOE INCITE PROGRAM14,000,0002010-01-012010-12-31
DOE INCITE PROGRAM14,000,0002010-01-012010-12-31
DOE INCITE PROGRAM15,000,0002009-01-012009-12-31
DOE INCITE PROGRAM15,000,0002009-01-012009-12-31
DOE INCITE PROGRAM15,000,0002009-01-012009-12-31
DOE INCITE PROGRAM10,000,0002008-01-012008-12-31
DOE INCITE PROGRAM10,000,0002008-01-012008-12-31
DOE INCITE PROGRAM10,000,0002008-01-012008-12-31