ICT2014 Abstracts

 The discovery of thermoelectric materials is the critical bottleneck limiting the widespread use of thermoelectric generators for energy harvesting.  To date, the search for such materials has been challenging due to the multitude of conflicting property requirements that must be simultaneously satisfied. Our research addresses these challenges through a high-throughput search for materials, enabled by the continued improvements in large-scale computing and the development of a thermoelectric performance metric suitable for  high-throughput calculations.   This talk will describe our ongoing efforts to rapidly screen all known inorganic crystalline compounds in a directed manner.  The validity of the critical descriptors utilized in this search is tested against both known thermoelectric materials and materials which are known to be poor thermoelectrics.  Armed with robust descriptors, we have identified new, promising  thermoelectric compounds theoretically and tested the veracity of these calculations through bulk syntheses and high temperature measurements.