Enhancing tellurium-free β-Zn4Sb3 thermoelectric efficiency with smart phonon control without reliance on rare or costly elements

Inductive reactance

https://phys.org/news/2025-05-smart-phonon-boosts-efficiency-eco.html

"heat phonons disrupted by rattling (phonon avoided crossing) dramatically slows down heat travel, lowering thermal conductivity, enhancing thermoelectric performance... single (rather than poly)-crystal conducts better, reaching 1.4% power conversion efficiency in single-leg thermoelectric module—one of the highest reported for undoped Zn4Sb3... κL of approximately 0.36 W/m·K in the 300–600 K range and a peak thermoelectric figure of merit (zT) of 1.0 at 623 K... fewer defects/ optimized carrier mobility"