Since 60% of the global primary energy consumption is lost during combustion and heat transfer processes, energy recovery is a key instrument to restrain the growing global energy demand and lower greenhouse-gas emissions. Thermoelectric materials are critical for successful conversion of waste heat; however, the scientific community is still searching for ideal thermoelectric materials.
Antimonides and silicides stand out as most promising thermoelectric materials but have not yet met the expectations. ANSWER proposes engineering unconventional antimonides and silicides through stabilization by configurational entropy. The strategy involves populating sublattice(s) of antimonides and silicides with nearly-equimolar mixtures of many distinct elements. If successful, this project will have impact on global energy management with significant contributions to materials technology and fundamental materials science.
ANSWER is funded by the NANO2021 program of the Research Council of Norway and runs for 3 years with SINTEF (coordinator) and UiO as partner in close collaboration with the German Space Agency.
Project team
SINTEF Industry: Patricia Almeida Carvalho (Project leader)
Marit Stange
Spyros Diplas
Ole Martin Løvvik,
Espen Sagvolden
UiO:
Terje Finstad
Anette Gunnaes