Thermoelectric transport control with metamaterial composites

Abstract

The control of thermal and electric currents is important for many devices and applications. Being able to independently direct the two flows under simultaneous thermal and voltage gradients is, however, difficult when coupling via thermoelectric effects is present in the material. Here, we present a general computational scheme for the design of composites whose constituent materials follow a simple circuit theory of in-parallel and in-series connected transport properties capable of enhancing or inhibiting electric and thermal currents in a desired direction. We show that using the geometry of the flow, thermoelectric metamaterials for controlling currents can be designed using individual components. Controlling the thermoelectrically coupled electric and thermal currents in terms of different flow directions can be significantly optimized by exploring the dissimilarity of the transport properties of the different components.