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Projects: Projects for Investigator
Reference Number EP/N02396X/1
Title DEFCOM: Designing Eco-Friendly and COst-efficient energy Materials
Status Completed
Energy Categories Other Power and Storage Technologies(Electric power conversion) 100%;
Research Types Basic and strategic applied research 100%
Science and Technology Fields PHYSICAL SCIENCES AND MATHEMATICS (Physics) 100%
UKERC Cross Cutting Characterisation Not Cross-cutting 100%
Principal Investigator Dr N Bonini
No email address given
Physics
King's College London
Award Type Standard
Funding Source EPSRC
Start Date 01 July 2016
End Date 30 June 2019
Duration 36 months
Total Grant Value £330,704
Industrial Sectors Energy; R&D
Region London
Programme NC : Physical Sciences
 
Investigators Principal Investigator Dr N Bonini , Physics, King's College London (99.999%)
  Other Investigator Dr C R Weber , Physics, King's College London (0.001%)
  Industrial Collaborator Project Contact , Johnson Matthey plc (0.000%)
Project Contact , Kennametal Sintec Keramik UK Ltd (0.000%)
Project Contact , Dassault Systemes Simulia Ltd (0.000%)
Project Contact , European Thermodynamics Ltd (0.000%)
Project Contact , NVIDIA Corporation, USA (0.000%)
Web Site
Objectives
Abstract Some of the most pressing global issues today are related to energy consumption, dissipation and waste. There is a great promise to address these issues by developing high-performance, cost-effective and eco-friendly materials for thermoelectric applications.Here we plan to use state-of-the-art theoretical ab initio modelling approaches and state-of-the-art materials synthesis and processing techniques to develop high-efficiency copper-antimony-sulphide based thermoelectric compounds. These ternary compounds have attracted great interest in recent years due to appealing structural, electronic and thermal transport properties. Indeed, Cu-Sb-S compounds display a rich structural variety (ranging from rock-salt to layered structures), a large range of band gaps and are characterised by extremely low thermal conductivities.These features combined with the non-toxicity and abundance of the constituent elements make the Cu-Sb-S system an ideal playground to optimise materials for sustainable thermoelectric devices.Despite the intense research activity on these systems, many fundamental questions remain open, including the origin of the anomalously low thermal conductivity, the role of electronic correlation related to the presence of Cu d electrons, and the effect of defects, dopants and stoichiometry on transport properties as well as on the structural stability and thermo-mechanics of these compounds. Realising the full potential of these systems and producing optimised materials for industrial evaluation requires a combined theoretical and experimental effort. For this we bring together teams from KCL and QMUL with complementary expertise, respectively, in modelling transport properties in complex compounds via advanced first-principles techniques, and in synthesis, processing and characterization of thermoelectric materials. This effort will be crucial to enhance the performance and the stability of these compounds: the experimental work will provide a test for the theoretical approach and the theoretical predictions will guide the synthesis of optimised compounds. Together with our industrial partners (European Thermodynamics, Johnson & Matthey, Kennametal) we will also explore the production process and characterization of Cu-Sb-S-based thermoelectric modules
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Added to Database 22/08/16