Grant: Research Tools and Instruments - Category 1 (<$150,000)

The foucs of my research is on advanced materials for the thermoelectric power generation, a unique technique to generate electricity from waste heat. Thermoelectric power generation is foreseen to play a much larger role in the near future, considering the need for alternative energies due to declining natural resources as well as the increasing efficiency of thermoelectric materials. The latter is a consequence of the discoveries of new materials as well as of improvements of established materials by nanostructuring or band structure engineering. My research group focuses on optimizing the thermoelectric properties of various selected materials as well as developing new, enhanced ones. This includes the determination of all thermoelectric key properties in our laboratories on properly densified materials. While we are now able to determine all these properties, we currently rely on collaborators to prepare hot-pressed samples for us, with sufficiently high densities to determine the intrinsic properties. Long waiting times exist that significantly hamper our research progress. Acquiring our own hot press, as proposed herewith, would enable us to be more competitive in thermoelectric research, becoming independent of the collaboration with competing laboratories in the United States. This equipment would most significantly propel my NSERC Discovery Grant research to new heights.