Research Projects

The demand for electrical energy is increasing, leading to the need for renewable energy sources like thermal, solar, or wind energy. These renewable energy sources have no negative environmental impact. Thermoelectric generation is a promising strategy for converting heat energy into electrical energy without movable parts, which can be used to retrieve heat energies from large machines and automobiles. The efficiency of these devices heavily depends on the thermoelectric efficiency, which is quantified by the power factor or figure of merit (zT) of the materials used. Low-dimensional van der Waals materials with high zT values in room temperature and higher temperatures are promising candidates for thermoelectric applications. However, optimizing zT by varying parameters like thermal conductivity, electrical conductivity, and Seeback coefficient can be challenging due to conflicting correlations. Designing new heterostructures and changing their stackings can result in novel properties due to van der Waal interactions between different layers. Combining materials to form such heterostructures has emerged as an interesting method for designing new materials. This project aims to study novel phenomena in designing new heterostructures and analyze the results to predict methods for designing high-performance thermoelectric applications.