Recent progress in magnesium-based thermoelectric materials

Magnesium-based thermoelectric materials (Mg2X, X = Si, Ge, Sn) are considered one of the most attractive groups for large-scale application, due to their materials’ high availability, low cost, low mass density and reasonably high efficiency. In this work, we present an overview of the recent developments relating to magnesium-based thermoelectric materials and review the current approaches towards high thermoelectric efficiency

Silver Oxalate: Mechanical Properties and Extreme Negative Mechanical Phenomena

9 pags., 7 figs., 1 tab.The crystal structure and mechanical properties of silver oxalate, Ag2C2O4, are determined using first-principles solid-state methods. The set of calculated mechanical properties include the bulk modulus and its pressure derivatives, the Young and shear moduli, the Poisson’s Ratio and the ductility, hardness, and anisotropy indices. Silver oxalate is a highly anisotropic brittle material possessing a small bulk modulus of 9.6 GPa. It displays the negative Poisson’s ratio (NPR) phenomenon, the value of the lowest NPR having a very large magnitude, −1.27. Besides, it exhibits the most extreme form of the negative linear compressibility (NLC) phenomenon found to date. Silver oxalate displays anisotropic NLC for external pressures in the range −0.1 to −2.4 GPa directed along the [010] crystallographic direction and isotropic NLC for isotropic pressures in the range −0.51 to 13.4 GPa. The lowest value of the negative compressibility, −831.9 ± 10 TPa−1, is found for an isotropic pressure of −0.16 GPa. The absolute value of the computed lowest NLC is extremely large, about three times larger than the absolute value of the lowest NLC found so far. The NLC pressure range is also very wide, its width being more than two times the largest range found to dateSupercomputer time by the CTI-CSIC center is greatly acknowledgedPeer reviewe