VENI GRANT

The Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO) has awarded a Veni grant to five excellent young scientists of the University of Twente under which one MESA⁺ researcher, dr.ir. Mark Huijben. The Veni subsidies are intended to develop and research new ideas over a three-year period. The subsidy is a maximum of EUR 250,000 per researcher.

Mark Huijben is assistant professor in the Inorganic Materials Science group as well as program director of the strategic research orientation ‘NanoMaterials for Energy’ in the MESA⁺ Institute for Nanotechnology.

Short abstract of VENI-proposal:

Efficient energy harvesting by nanostructured thermoelectric materials

In view of global energy and environmental issues, the necessity to utilize our global energy sources more efficiently becomes relevant. Since most energy is still being discharged into the environment as waste heat, significant amount of renewable energy remains unused. Thermoelectric power generation systems offer a feasible method to convert available heat energy directly into electrical energy, irrespective of source size. However, implementation of present semiconductor materials into practical thermoelectric applications has been hampered due to toxic and/or scarce elements and poor chemical stability at high temperatures. The use of oxide compounds as promising thermoelectric materials has enormous potential to overcome the above-mentioned problems, if their thermal conductivity can be reduced.

This proposal addresses the issues to what extent the heat-to-electricity conversion efficiency can be increased by fabricating high-quality oxide superlattices, i.e., is it possible to reduce the thermal conductivity through optimized phonon scattering by confinement in oxide nanostructures? Here, the fabrication of high quality interfaces is particularly challenging, because atomic interdiffusion and interface defects will have significant influence on phonon scattering and charge carrier transport. New developments in atomically controlled thin film growth enable us to design and fabricate such novel artificial oxide materials.

The project should result in a newly ‘designed’ oxide material with a high heat-to-electricity conversion efficiency for thermoelectric applications. The material should have low thermal conductivity, high electrical conductivity and large Seebeck coefficient to be used in thermoelectric components, e.g., for small self-powered systems as well as boosters of energy efficiency for cars, power plants and industrial processes.

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Home News Research People Activities Thesis assignments Education Publications Vacancies Contact Links MESA+ THIOX Sitemap Print version	VENI GRANT The Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO) has awarded a Veni grant to five excellent young scientists of the University of Twente under which one MESA⁺ researcher, dr.ir. Mark Huijben. The Veni subsidies are intended to develop and research new ideas over a three-year period. The subsidy is a maximum of EUR 250,000 per researcher. Mark Huijben is assistant professor in the Inorganic Materials Science group as well as program director of the strategic research orientation ‘NanoMaterials for Energy’ in the MESA⁺ Institute for Nanotechnology. Short abstract of VENI-proposal: Efficient energy harvesting by nanostructured thermoelectric materials In view of global energy and environmental issues, the necessity to utilize our global energy sources more efficiently becomes relevant. Since most energy is still being discharged into the environment as waste heat, significant amount of renewable energy remains unused. Thermoelectric power generation systems offer a feasible method to convert available heat energy directly into electrical energy, irrespective of source size. However, implementation of present semiconductor materials into practical thermoelectric applications has been hampered due to toxic and/or scarce elements and poor chemical stability at high temperatures. The use of oxide compounds as promising thermoelectric materials has enormous potential to overcome the above-mentioned problems, if their thermal conductivity can be reduced. This proposal addresses the issues to what extent the heat-to-electricity conversion efficiency can be increased by fabricating high-quality oxide superlattices, i.e., is it possible to reduce the thermal conductivity through optimized phonon scattering by confinement in oxide nanostructures? Here, the fabrication of high quality interfaces is particularly challenging, because atomic interdiffusion and interface defects will have significant influence on phonon scattering and charge carrier transport. New developments in atomically controlled thin film growth enable us to design and fabricate such novel artificial oxide materials. The project should result in a newly ‘designed’ oxide material with a high heat-to-electricity conversion efficiency for thermoelectric applications. The material should have low thermal conductivity, high electrical conductivity and large Seebeck coefficient to be used in thermoelectric components, e.g., for small self-powered systems as well as boosters of energy efficiency for cars, power plants and industrial processes.