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Research persons: Professor Hideo Hosono

Location: Tokyo Institute of Technology,4259 Nagatsuta, Midori-ku, Yokohama 226-8503, Japan

Details

Professor Hideo Hosono and Dr.
Sungwng Kim of
the
Frontier Collaborative Research Center and
the
Materials and Structures Laboratory, Tokyo Tech, Assocaite Professor
Hiromichi Ohta of Nagoya University, Professor Yuichi Ikuhara of the University
of Tokyo, and their research groups have successfully developed highly-efficient
thermoelectric materials using SrTiO₃ which is commonly used for
synthetic jewelry. The research achievement was published in Nature
Materials 6, 129 - 134 (2007).

Thermoelectric materials generate
electricity when provided with temperature differences (Seebeck effect) and
decrease the temperature if the electric current is maintained (Peltier effect).
With this property, thermoelectric materials are used for cooling of devices,
for example, watches and portable refrigerators. The thermoelectric materials
being used at present contain heavy metals such as bismuth, antimony, and lead.
However, being either toxic, non heat-resisting, or scare in abundance as
natural resources, they have not been widely used for practical purposes. In
recent years, non-toxic oxides with high heat resistance property have been used
despite of their inefficiency of heat-electricity conversion, which is less than
a tenth of a heavy metal.

The research group have
successfully generated thermoelectric power using strontium titanate with a
concentrated electron layer. Strontium titanate, which is an insulator itself,
is known to generate electricity with an addition of niobium or a removal of
contained oxygen. Electrons are successfully confined in a super-thin strontium
titanate sheet produced with an ultra-precise film-forming technology. The
thickness of the sheet is only 0.4 nanometers. The generated thermopower is
approximately five times larger than that of a normal strontium titanate, and
the heat-conversion efficiency is almost twice higher than that of a
conventional heavy metal.

This research can be applied to
various technologies including power generation, cooling, or thermosensors. It
is also expected to contribute to the development of clean energy technology
like solar energy generation.

About Researcher:

Prof. Hosono Hideo

TEL: +81-45-924-5359
FAX: +81-45-924-5339
Room: J1-606
E-Mail:
hosono@msl.titech.ac.jp

Address:
    Matrials and
Structures Laboratory,
    Tokyo Institute of Technology
    4259 Nagatsuta, Midori-ku, Yokohama 226-8503
Department: 
     Department of Materials
Science and Engineering

Funded:

The research has been conducted
as part of a Hosono-headed research project of Exploratory Research for Advanced
Technology (Solution-Oriented Reseach), JST, and a project of Core Research for
Environmental Science and Technology headed by Professor Kunihito Koumoto of
NagoyaUniversity, also funded by JST.