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Heat Transport with Phonons and Electrons and Efficiency of Thermoelectric Generators

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Mesoscopic Theories of Heat Transport in Nanosystems

Part of the book series: SEMA SIMAI Springer Series ((SEMA SIMAI,volume 6))

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Abstract

Alternative power sources based on energy harvesting are promising candidates to substitute batteries due to their ability to extract power from the environment or secondary processes, as well as to attain fully autonomous systems without periodical human intervention. Thermoelectric energy harvesters have received special attention in recent years, due to the large amount of residual heat yielding from the current energy generation technology based on fossil fuels and from solar heating. Thermoelectric devices offer an attractive source of energy since they do not have moving parts, do not create pollution, do not make noise.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Refer to Eq. (6.31) in Sect. 6.1 for its explicit expression in the classical version in the case of a thermoelectric energy generator.

  2. 2.

    Along with previous observations in this case one also has β 2 = 1, and moreover γ = 0.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mathematics Computer Science and Economics, Università della Basilicata, Potenza, Italy

    Antonio Sellitto & Vito Antonio Cimmelli

  2. Department of Industrial Engineering, Univesità degli Studi di Salerno, Salerno, Italy

    Antonio Sellitto

  3. Department of Physics, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Bellaterra, Catalonia, Spain

    David Jou

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Sellitto, A., Cimmelli, V.A., Jou, D. (2016). Heat Transport with Phonons and Electrons and Efficiency of Thermoelectric Generators. In: Mesoscopic Theories of Heat Transport in Nanosystems. SEMA SIMAI Springer Series, vol 6. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-27206-1_6

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