Researchers from Tokyo Metropolitan University have
shown that a quantity known as thermoelectric conductivity is an
effective measure for the dimensionality of newly developed
thermoelectric nanomaterials. Studying films of semiconducting
single-walled carbon nanotubes and atomically thin sheets of
molybdenum sulfide and graphene, they found clear distinctions in
how this number varies with conductivity, in agreement with
theoretical predictions in 1D and 2D materials. Such a metric
promises better design strategies for thermoelectric
materials.
Better metric for thermoelectric materials means better
design strategies
