CHAPTER 13: Two-dimensional Nanomaterials as Promising Candidates for Thermoelectric Applications

With the increasing shortage of energy and the increasingly serious environmental pollution, thermoelectric materials as environmentally friendly, clean new energy materials have aroused tremendous attention in recent years. It is widely known that inorganic two dimensional materials usually have substantial chemical and physical properties owing to their confined structures, as well as their tunable electronic and phononic intercalations. Thus, considering the interdependence of the factors that thermoelectric conversion efficiency relies on, two dimensional nanomaterials can decouple them effectively and thus enhance the thermoelectric merit, which paves a new way to improve the conversion efficiency from heat to electrical energy. In this chapter, we discuss the performance parameters of thermoelectric materials in detail and highlight various inorganic two dimensional nanomaterials for their thermoelectric behavior.