Thermoelectric (TE) devices are able to convert the waste heat form combustion engines,
solar energy or from radioactive sources into electrical or some other kind of energy on a
pure and non pollutant way. Silicon, the basic material of semiconductor electronics, is
widely available, comparatively cheap, ecologically friendly and technologically well
developed. Those are reasons enough to seek a marriage between silicon and
thermoelectric properties. Recently, Ivanda’s group has found a large Seebeck coefficient
of 200 uV/K (the main physical property of TE materials), in a heavily boron doped
polysilicon sample obtained by the LPCVD method. By using the LPCVD method, they are
producing various kinds of doped silicon nanostructures (dots and wires) in order to obtain
those with good TE properties. They also search for advanced TE properties on nanoporous
silicon prepared by anodisation techniqe.