Oxide thermoelectric materials: A nanostructuring approach

Thermoelectric power generation technology is now expected to help overcome global warming and climate change issues by recovering and converting waste heat into electricity, thus improving the total efficiency of energy utilization and pressing the consumption of fossil fuels that are supposedly the major sources of CO₂ emission. Thermoelectric oxides, composed of nontoxic, naturally abundant, light, and cheap elements, are expected to play a vital role in extensive applications for waste heat recovery in an air atmosphere. This review article summarizes our previous and ongoing studies on SrTiO ₃-based materials and further discusses nanostructuring approaches for both SrTiO₃ and CaMnO₃ materials. ZnMnGaO₄ is taken as a model case for constructing a self-assembled nanostructure. The present status of thermoelectric oxide module development is also introduced and discussed.