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Nanostructured Thermoelectric: Phonon Glass, Electron Crystal

Interactive 3D phonon-transport simulator: tune grain size, rattler-atom concentration, temperature and carrier doping in a nanostructured thermoelectric crystal, and watch heat-carrying phonons scatter while charge-carrying electrons pass through relatively unimpeded — live κ, ZT and Carnot-relative efficiency.

Materials Science3DAdvanced60 FPS📱 Mobile-adapted⇄ 2D version

Thermoelectric performance is capped by one uncomfortable fact: the same free carriers that conduct electricity also conduct a share of the heat, and the crystal lattice conducts the rest. This simulator renders a nanostructured thermoelectric crystal — host lattice atoms, heavy "rattler" guest atoms in cage voids, and grain boundaries between crystallites — and fires real heat-carrying phonons and charge-carrying electrons through it. Phonon and electron mean free paths are combined with Matthiessen's rule from boundary scattering, rattler scattering and temperature-dependent Umklapp scattering, then converted through the Wiedemann-Franz law and the Pisarenko doping relation into a live lattice thermal conductivity, ZT figure of merit and Carnot-relative conversion efficiency — the same design trade-offs engineers navigate when building filled skutterudites, SnSe and Bi₂Te₃-based devices.

⚙ Under the hood

Tune grain size, rattler-atom concentration, temperature and carrier doping in a nanostructured thermoelectric crystal and watch heat-carrying phonons scatter while charge-carrying electrons pass through almost unimpeded, with live lattice thermal conductivity, ZT figure of merit and Carnot-relative efficiency.

thermoelectricphonon scatteringZT figure of meritskutteruditematerials scienceSeebeck

3D · Three.js / WebGL renderer · 60 FPS target · runs fully client-side, no install