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In recent years, novel families of materials have been discovered and major improvements in the classical thermoelectric materials have been made. Thermoelectric generators are being used to harvest waste industrial heat and convert it into the most portable forms of energy which is electricity. This is utilized in communal incinerators (Japan), large smelters, and cement plants. Major car and truck companies are developing thermoelectric power generators to collect heat from the exhaust systems of gasoline and diesel engines. Additionally, thermoelectric coolers are utilized in a variety of picnic boxes, vessel used to transport transplant organs, and in air-conditioned seats of mid-size cars. It is thus appropriate to collect, in a new volume, the major advancements made in the material aspects of thermoelectricity and provide their critical assessment in regards to the broadening of application opportunities for thermoelectric energy conversion.
"Materials Aspect of Thermoelectricity" consists of twenty chapters written by top researchers who were directly involved with the respective areas of research. This text focuses on the material aspects of recent developments, as this area is evolving very rapidly and, potentially, which could have an immense impact on the entire field of thermoelectricity.
