Grant: Research Tools and Instruments

Dr. Kleinke's NSERC-funded research focuses on thermoelectric materials of significant fundamental and practical interest for more sustainable energy usage. Thermoelectric materials are the only materials capable of directly converting heat into electricity (for power generation) and vice versa (for cooling). Thermoelectric cooling applications are well established, for example in wine coolers, portable fridges and car seats. An exciting thermoelectric power generation application lies in the conversion of - otherwise lost - waste heat to useful electricity, such as in the steel and cement industries. A second potential application of increasing importance is to provide power for the billions of sensors in the Internet-of-Things (IoT). While the reliability of the thermoelectric power generation, as successfully demonstrated in various spacecrafts such as Voyager I and II since decades, is unparalleled, the comparatively low energy conversion efficiency mitigates against wider usages. Therefore, Dr. Kleinke aims to identify and subsequently characterize thermoelectric materials with enhanced conversion efficiency, supported by artificial intelligence in form of machine learning. Benefits of this research to the people of Canada are associated with more sustainable energy conversion, and trained students and researchers (highly qualified personnel, HQP) in this area of vital interest to many industries. In fact, Global Power Technologies from Calgary, Alberta, is the world's largest manufacturer of thermoelectric generators. Moreover, this will also result in HQP trained in machine learning, another area of growing importance. For the research of thermoelectric materials, detailed studies of the electrical and thermal properties are a necessity, because these properties determine the thermoelectric figure-of-merit, which in turn determines the efficiency of the thermoelectric energy conversion. Therefore, 24/7 access to instruments capable of measuring these properties, namely Seebeck coefficient and electrical conductivity as well as thermal conductivity, is essential. While the latter can currently be investigated well in the Kleinke laboratories, the instrument to determine Seebeck coefficient and electrical conductivity has finally broken down beyond repair after 16 years of heavy usage. Therefore, a replacement - which will also substantially enhance the accuracy of the acquired data - is urgently requested with this grant. Only with this replacement instrument requested here, the Kleinke group can remain competitive and continue its research and attract industrial partners.