Progress in the Research on Promising High-Performance Thermoelectric Materials

Various classes of chemical compounds that are considered promising thermoelectric materials with a high efficiency of converting thermal energy into electric energy are studied. The strategies for increasing the thermoelectric figure of merit and examples of their application are described. The progress in studies of compounds, such as SnX (X = S, Se, Te), AgSbTe2, M3 -xTe4 (M = La, Nd, Pr), Mg3Sb2, Mg2X (X = Si, Ge, Sn), and MgAgSb, is evaluated. The contribution of the use of information technology to the development of thermoelectric materials science is determined.