High thermoelectric cooling performance of n-type Mg 3 Bi 2 -based materials

Thrifty thermoelectric cooling Currently available thermoelectric devices for cooling rely on expensive bismuth telluride. Mao et al. systematically developed a far less expensive n-type magnesium-bismuth–based material with good thermoelectric properties. They built a device that could generate a temperature difference of up to 90 kelvin when coupled with a commercially available p-type material. Such materials should provide an excellent basis for cost-effective thermoelectric cooling technology. Science , this issue p. 495