Materials for thermoelectric energy recovery

"We have a vacancy for a PhD student to work on the synthesis and characterisation of inorganic materials for energy applications. The project will investigate new thermoelectric materials, which can be used in devices for the direct conversion of heat into electrical power. A particularly attractive application of thermoelectric devices is in the recovery of waste heat from other processes, as this can lead to reduced energy costs, increased competitiveness and environmental gains through reduced usage of fossil fuels, with concomitant reductions in CO2 emissions.
Nanostructuring and nanocompositing will be explored as a route to enhance the thermoelectric performance of materials. The project will involve synthesis of new chalcogenides and oxychalcogenides and structural and physical property characterisation (e.g. powder X-ray diffraction, electrical conductivity, Seebeck coefficient and thermal conductivity measurements). The group is a major user of central facilities (ISIS, Diamond) at the nearby Harwell campus, and there will be opportunities to characterise these materials by neutron diffraction or inelastic neutron scattering.

Informal enquiries can be made to Dr Paz Vaqueiro (p.vaqueiro@reading.ac.uk).
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