High-entropy thermoelectric materials

More than 60% of the energy in the world is wasted during the energy conversion processes but can be potentially collected by thermoelectric (TE) technology. Recently, entropy engineering has been applied in the TE community, yielding numerous high-entropy material systems that exhibit outstanding TE performance. This review outlines the design principles for entropy-stabilized TE materials. Subsequently, it discusses the impact of high entropy on electrical and thermal transport properties. Furthermore, the research advancements of various high-entropy TE material systems are summarized, encompassing IV–VI compounds, half-Heusler (HH) compounds, liquid-like materials, oxide-based ceramics, and other relevant systems. Finally, the conclusion and outlook for high-entropy TE materials are elucidated. Only small regions of high-entropy TE materials have been investigated so far, and there will be vast space that remains to be explored. High-entropy TE materials will be one of the core strategies in the TE community if the optimization mechanism is completely understood.