Recommended Literature

Below is listed the literature that the group has deemed most relevant and appropriate to begin studying and researching thermoelectrics.  More will be added as the project progresses.

This paper abstract describes one motivation for researching the field of thermoelectrics and introduces fundamental concepts, such as ZT, which is used to analyze "efficiency" of thermoelectric materials.

http://www.nature.com/nnano/journal/v4/n4/full/nnano.2009.65.html

As one of the leaders in the research of thermoelectrics, Venkatasubramanian has advanced the study of materials exponentially.  This paper summarizes some of his findings in the field.

http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v413/n6856/full/413597a0.html

This simpler article illustrates the principles of thermocoupling, which has implications in the design of the desired thermoelectric cell.

http://www.mpoweruk.com/thermoelectricity.htm

This diagram illustrates a simple thermocoupler.

http://www.mpoweruk.com/images/teg.gif

This abstract simply explains the fundamentals of thermoelectrics.

http://www.nature.com/nmat/journal/v7/n2/abs/nmat2090.html

This paper denotes and delineates some of the leading and popular methods for controlling certain properties of materials in order to obtain desired thermoelectric properties.  Ultimately, as the group ambitiously hopes to design/optimize a material, this article is especially cogent.

A simple history of the thermoelectric battery.

http://physics.kenyon.edu/EarlyApparatus/Thermodynamics/Thermoelectric_Battery/Thermoelectric_Battery.html
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1359029409000363

This article presents one of the approaches to thermoelectric materials being used to convert temperature differentials to energy by analyzing effective materials to do so.

http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v451/n7175/full/nature06381.html

This paper illustrates alternate applications of thermoelectrics in semiconductive materials, but also illustrates the one of the processes by which modern thermoelectric cells can be designed.

http://www.google.com/patents?hl=en&lr=&vid=USPAT5430322&id=Q1oeAAAAEBAJ&oi=fnd&dq=thermoelectric+semiconductors&printsec=abstract#v=onepage&q=thermoelectric%20semiconductors&f=false

This article contains a more in-depth and mathematically rigorous examination of the Seebeck coefficient and thermocoupling applications in modern thermoelectrics.  It will aid in the quantifying of the advantages of certain materials and the overall benefits of cells.

http://www.kasap.usask.ca/samples/Thermoelectric-Seebeck.pdf

This article aids in the characterization of the need for thermoelectric cooling on the microscopic level and illustrates modern efforts to do so.

http://www.nature.com/nnano/journal/v4/n4/full/nnano.2008.417.html

This article relatively concisely describes the development and the production of silicon semiconductors and major breakthroughs in heightening the maximum achieved ZT (or figure of merit).

http://search.proquest.com/docview/924964348/fulltextPDF/13D5EC1FA27599AAAA1/4?accountid=10559

The following paper illuminates the exciting prospects in using graphene as a thermoelectric device because it can yield an incredibly large ZT.

http://apl.aip.org/resource/1/applab/v91/i20/p203116_s1