Lead telluride: a giant good for thermoelectricity.

[elephant]

Hope, for example to double the performance of solar panels?

http://www.lematin.ch/savoirs/sciences/ ... y/16725067

yield 15 to 20%

but tellurium is toxic and world production is 250 tonnes / year, it seems.

[Matt113]

it will allow you to make more efficient seebeck / peltier modules, to transform the calories lost into electricity.

[Gaston]

Hope, for example to double the performance of solar panels?

yield 15 to 20%

Unfortunately, the efficiency of 15 to 20% is not found in the temperature zone of the solar panels, but rather towards temperature differences above 300 °.

(source Wikipedia)

That said, it can be a very attractive product for other heat sources that are currently unused.

[Superform]

2 years ago, we were talking about the blueberry ...

https://www.econologie.com/forums/voltaique- ... t9502.html

[moinsdewatt]

Hope, for example to double the performance of solar panels?
.....

What does this have to do with photovoltaic solar panels?

[chatelot16]

nothing to do with photovoltaics! it's thermal

the output is limited by the temperature: if it goes up to 200 ° C it is a little better than the current pelletier modules but it is not yet very glorious

as long as to make the thermal the good old steam engine with steel boiler mounted without problem at 300 ° C and we get real for a long time very close to the theoretical maximum yield

[Gaston]

Hope, for example to double the performance of solar panels?
.....

What does this have to do with photovoltaic solar panels?

One could imagine "doubling" a photovoltaic panel by placing this kind of modules on the back.

Unfortunately, the temperature difference between the panel and the ambient air is of the order of 50 ° (at most) and the efficiency of the thermoelectric part will be 2 to 3%. So far from "doubling the yield" of the initial panel.

[moinsdewatt]

the Nature article that inspired the above article is here: http://www.nature.com/news/out-of-disor ... ty-1.11445

I am relieved :

.............
Kanatzidis and his team began with one of the most well-known thermoelectrics: lead telluride (PbTe), which usually has an ordered lattice structure. The researchers scattered in a few sodium atoms to boost the material's electrical conductivity, then shoved in some nanocrystals of strontium telluride (SrTe), another thermoelectric material. The crystals allowed electrons to pass, but disrupted the flow of heat at short scales, preserving the temperature gradient.

The final step was to stop heat flow over longer scales. To do this, the team created a fractured version of their pretty thermoelectric crystal. The fracturing did the trick: the cracks allowed electrons to move but reflected heat vibrations in the crystal. The material had a conversion efficiency of about 15% - double that of normal PbTe thermoelectrics.
.........

they start with lead tellurium, and after the cooking recipe is a little convoluted.

Then:

That doesn't mean that the material is ready to be used on the next Mars rover, Snyder adds. The sodium introduced to make electrons move is highly reactive, and can degrade the material, particularly if it accumulates along the fractures designed to stop heat flow. NASA has been looking at similar approaches for future space missions, but the agency is not yet convinced that the approach is ready for launch, he says.

Kanatzidis is more optimistic. "I think the materials that we have today are good enough for applications," he says. "My belief is that in about two to three years we will have something."

good if he is convinced that in 2 or 3 years we will have '' something '', that means that it takes 10 to make it happen on the industrial market.

[elephant]

Gaston said:

One could imagine "doubling" a photovoltaic panel by placing this kind of modules on the back.

Alas, another lost illusion ...

[dedeleco]

If not too expensive, we will put this on our exhaust pipes or chimneys at 600 ° K or in the focus of small solar at high concentration.

But a usual Stirling has a similar yield, and therefore, everything will depend on the price, with the pollution of tellurium, poison, as well as its anti-ecological extraction, worse than that of rare earths or lithium.