The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Nov. 13, 2012
Filed:
Apr. 30, 2004
Lidong Chen, Shanghai, CN;
Xun Shi, Shanghai, CN;
Jihui Yang, Tecumseh, CA;
Gregory P. Meisner, Ann Arbor, MI (US);
Lidong Chen, Shanghai, CN;
Xun Shi, Shanghai, CN;
Jihui Yang, Tecumseh, CA;
Gregory P. Meisner, Ann Arbor, MI (US);
GM Global Technology Operations LLC, Detroit, MI (US);
Shanghai Institute of Ceramics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, P.R., CH;
Abstract
A method of improving the thermoelectric figure of merit (ZT) of a high-efficiency thermoelectric material is disclosed. The method includes the addition of fullerene (C) clusters between the crystal grains of the material. It has been found that the lattice thermal conductivity (κ) of a thermoelectric material decreases with increasing fullerene concentration, due to enhanced phonon-large defect scattering. The resulting power factor (S/ρ) decrease of the material is offset by the lattice thermal conductivity reduction, leading to enhanced ZT values at temperatures of between 350 degrees K and 700 degrees K.