History of development of thermoelectric materials for electric power generation and criteria of their quality

An analysis of results, obtained in the development of thermoelectric materials for electricity generation during the last 130 years, shows that they are comparable to those obtained as early as the nineteenth century. One of the main factors responsible for the stagnation in this area is the use of inappropriate criteria for the evaluation of material quality. The most popular criterion used for this purpose is the Thermoelectric Figure of Merit. The criterion of usefulness proposed in this paper is free of imperfections of the Thermoelectric Figure of Merit and may be considered as alternati...