Thermoelectric properties of lead chalcogenide core-shell nanostructures

We present the full thermoelectric characterization of nanostructured bulk PbTe and PbTe-PbSe samples fabricated from colloidal core-shell nanoparticles followed by spark plasma sintering. An unusually large thermopower is found in both materials, and the possibility of energy filtering as opposed to grain boundary scattering as an explanation is discussed. A decreased Debye temperature and an increased molar specific heat are in accordance with recent predictions for nanostructured materials. On the basis of these results we propose suitable core-shell material combinations for future thermoelectric materials of large electric conductivities in combination with an increased thermopower by energy filtering.Comment: 12 pages, 8 figure

Management of Economic Research in Russian Universities: Scientometrics and International Rankings

The authors analyse the environment and its current state of academic research in the field of economics formed in Russia. We considered the publication activity over the past six years of Russian economic, educational organisations as well as the results of the leading Russian universities in the QS and THE subject rankings. Further, we also revealed the connections between the formed conditions in which Russian economics researchers have to work and the results of universities in these rankings. The authors presume the need for expanding approaches to promote Russian economic science on the world stage. Therefore, we discussed current ways of stimulation and evaluation of the activities of Russian economic researchers and proposed that educational system governors use now need to be evaluated and perhaps improved