GRAPHTED: Graphene nanocomposite materials for thermoelectric devices

The current climate for improved energy efficiency is driving the automotive market to seek ways of capturing waste energy from car exhausts. This will improve fuel consumption and reduce pollution while also reducing the levels of carbon dioxide emitted. Current materials for thermoelectric (TE) generators are typically based on compounds that are scarce, expensive and environmentally unsound. Other TE materials do not suffer from these drawbacks but their performance is insufficient to achieve technical and commercial viability.
However, research at the University of Manchester has led to a number of innovative patent protected graphene containing materials with significantly improved thermoelectric properties over a wide range of temperatures. In collaboration with leading thermoelectric manufacturer, European Thermodynamics Limited, the GRAPHTED project will develop improved TE materials into waste heat recovery devices for automotive exhaust gas and other energy harvesting applications, significantly improving the efficiency and achieving cost-effective means to recover energy that would otherwise be lost.