Large-Scale, Solution-Synthesized Nanostructured Composites for Thermoelectric Applications

As more than one-half of worldwide consumed energy is wasted as heat every year, high-efficiency thermoelectric materials are highly demanded for the conversion of rejected heat to electricity in a reliable fashion. In the recent few decades, nanoscience has revolutionized thermoelectrics via the quantum confinement effect in electronic structures and grain-boundary scattering of heat carriers. As the gas-phase syntheses of nanomaterials are not easily scalable and solid-state syntheses are not controllable in terms of microstructures at various length scales, significant research efforts have focused on solution syntheses that can build nanostructures with well-defined size, composition, and morphology. Beyond the performance, several novel effects that benefit the portability and cost efficiency have been discovered in the solution-synthesized nanomaterials. Herein, the relevant progress is reviewed and some prospects proposed.