See: http://energy.gov/sites/prod/files/2015/02/f19/QTR%20Ch8%20-%20Thermoelectic%20Materials%20TA%20Feb-13-2015.pdf
DRAFT – PRE-DECISIONAL –DRAFT – FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY – DRAFT It is surprising what you can find on the Internet. I was looking around to find out whether thermoelectric devices are likely to become cheaper in the future. Many of them incorporate tellurium or selenium which are both expensive. Here is interesting paragraph: The most common thermoelectric conductors materials today are alloys of chalcogenides (materials 50 with a chalcogen or IUPAC group 16 anion). Specifically these materials are either based on bismuth 51 telluride (Bi2Te3) or lead telluride (PbTe). Bi2Te3 can be alloyed with Bi2Se3 to form n-type Bi2Te3-xSex and with Sb2Te3 to form p-type Bi 52 xSb2-xTe3. PbTe can be alloyed with PbSe to form p-type PbTe1-xSex and with SnTe to form n-type Pb1-xSnxTe. PbTe has been used successfully by NASA as radioisotope thermoelectric generators (RTGs) but it has not been rejected by all current power generation projects because of the weak mechanical properties during thermal cycling from variable temperature gradient. New material classes could allow for waste heat recovery with better efficiency or use with higher temperature heat sources. These classes include skutterudites, clathrates, Half-Heuslers, and oxides such as cobaltites and perovskites (Tian, Lee, & Chen, 2013). Other material classes such as silicides (LeBlanc, Yee, Scullin, 59 Dames, & Goodson, 2014), and tetrahedrites (Lu & Morelli, 2013) are primarily considered for their relatively low cost. These new classes have been the subject of a great deal of research but have had limited commercial use due to cost, reliability, efficiency, and processing issues that prevent them being selected over traditional materials. - Jed
