Thermoelectric materials that can directly convert heat to electrical energy offer a viable solution for reducing the usage of fossil energy by harvesting waste heat resources. Higher manganese silicide (HMS) is a naturally abundant, eco-friendly, and low-cost p-type thermoelectric semiconductor with high power factor (PF); however, its figure of merit (ZT) is limited by intrinsically high thermal conductivity (κ). For effectively enhancing the thermoelectric performance of HMS and avoiding the use of expensive or toxic elements, such as Re, Te, or Pb, a green p-type MnS with high Seebeck coefficient (S) and low κ is incorporated into the HMS matrix to form MnS/HMS composites. The incorporation of MnS leads to a 31% reduction of κ and a 10% increase of S. The ZT value increases by ≈48% from 0.40 to 0.59 at 823 K. Correspondingly, performance/price ratio is first proposed to evaluate the practical value of thermoelectric materials, which is higher than those of the vast majority of current thermoelectric materials. This study provides an overview of enhancing ZT of HMS and reducing costs, which may also be applicable to other thermoelectric materials.
Keywords: MnS; higher manganese silicide; performance/price ratios; thermoelectric materials.