Research Projects

The demand for green technologies has increased due to the increasing energy demands and the negative effects of conventional fossil fuels. Renewable technologies like wind, biogas, and solar are attractive, but thermoelectric materials, which convert heat into electricity, have shown limitations in performance due to the lack of available materials. High entropy alloys (HEAs) have the potential for various structural and functional applications but have been less explored in terms of thermoelectric performance. The proposed work aims to synthesize mono-phase nanocrystalline BiSbTe1.5Se1.5Sn HEAs via a powder metallurgical route combining mechanical alloying (MA) and spark plasma sintering (SPS). The band structure, electronic, and thermal transport properties will be fine-tuned with potential doping of silver (Ag), sodium (Na), and lead (Pb) in BiSbTe1.5Se1.5Sn HEA. Characterization studies will be conducted using X-ray diffraction (XRD), electron microscopy, and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) to study phase evolution, structural phenomena, and chemical homogeneity. The density functional theory (DFT) first principle will be used to correlate the underlying principles involved in enhancing thermoelectric performance.