Advanced materials for solar thermoelectric transducers

Recent achievements in the creation of advanced thermoelectric materials (the thermoelectric quality factor, cost, and workability) have been analyzed. It has been shown that nanostructured materials (quantum dot superlattices and silicate glasses with nanocrystals) can serve as a basis for the creation of highly efficient and easily accessible for mass application thermoelectric transducers converting solar radiation into electric energy. An advantage of thermoelectric transducers is the nonselective character of conversion and the lower sensitivity to changes in the orientation towards an emission source. (author)