Increasing the Efficiency of the Multi-mission Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator

High Performance Thermoelectric Materials: Progress and Their Applications

“…[19] A 5 W PbTe-based RTG was first fabricated in 1959, [44] and then the PbTe system was replaced by the SiGe alloy due to its higher operational temperature. [19,249,250,265] However, the output power is more important than the system efficiency, and the output power can be varied from a few milliwatts to several hundreds of watts depending upon the size (or mass) of the RTGs. [19,249,250,265] However, the output power is more important than the system efficiency, and the output power can be varied from a few milliwatts to several hundreds of watts depending upon the size (or mass) of the RTGs.…”

“…[19,44] Limited by the ZT values (<2 or even lower) of current commercial TE materials and the electrical and thermal losses of devices, the system efficiency of RTGs is usually ≈8% or lower. [19,249,270,272] In the past several decades, extensive effort has been made to increase the specific power of RTGs through rational design of devices [19,249,250,265,272] and seeking for better TE materials with higher ZT. [19,249,270,272] In the past several decades, extensive effort has been made to increase the specific power of RTGs through rational design of devices [19,249,250,265,272] and seeking for better TE materials with higher ZT.…”

“…[19,249,270,272] In the past several decades, extensive effort has been made to increase the specific power of RTGs through rational design of devices [19,249,250,265,272] and seeking for better TE materials with higher ZT. [250,266] Its specific power can be further pushed to ≈4 W kg −1 when using TE skutterudite alloys. [250,266] Its specific power can be further pushed to ≈4 W kg −1 when using TE skutterudite alloys.…”

“…[266] The specific power of earlier RTG designs was only 1.3 W kg −1 , [19,273] which increased to 2.8 W kg −1 in the Multi-Mission Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator using telluride-based materials. [250,266,274,275] When SiGe alloy [273] was applied in the Multi-Hundred Watt Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator with a high hot side temperature up to 1275 K, a specific power of 4 W kg −1 , or even as high as 5.1 W kg −1 , has been delivered. [250,266,274,275] When SiGe alloy [273] was applied in the Multi-Hundred Watt Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator with a high hot side temperature up to 1275 K, a specific power of 4 W kg −1 , or even as high as 5.1 W kg −1 , has been delivered.…”

Criteria for extending the operation periods of thermoelectric converters based on IV-VI compounds

“…Inspired by the American National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) deep space applications, powered since 1961 by thermoelectric generators, exhibiting high reliability and low degradation rates (less than 5%/year) but relatively low heat to electrical conversion efficiencies (in the order of 6%) [1][2][3], many recent groups including the Kanatzidis (e.g. p-type PbTe (SrTe doped, ZT max $ 2) [4,5] and (MgTe doped, ZT max $ 1.6) [6]; p-type SnSe (ZT max $ 2.5) [7]; p-and n-type PbTe-PbS (ZT max $1.8 [8] and 1.5 [9], respectively)); Snyder (e.g.…”