Abstract
Thermoelectric cooling or heating can be used to drive materials to specified temperatures. By way of the Peltier effect, heat is liberated or absorbed when a current flows across a 'unction of two dissimilar conductors. A time history of the temperature cycle can be used to correlate a thermal response as a function of electrical current and initial temperature. In this thesis, the thermoelectric cooling and heating of copper and mercury, in conjunction with bismuth-telluride (Bl2Te3) semiconductors, are measured and compared against a I-D approximation developed by Bhattacharyya, Lagoudas, Waiig, and Kinra.' Based on results published in the aforementioned article and unpublished work of the author, refinements in the experimental setup are meant to further insure that the I-D assumptions are followed as accurately as possible. The improvements however are dwarfed by possible misconceptions assumed in the physics of the setup.
Clancy, Terry L (1998). Transient cooling and heating via a bismuth-telluride thermoelectric device. Master's thesis, Texas A&M University. Available electronically from
https : / /hdl .handle .net /1969 .1 /ETD -TAMU -1998 -THESIS -C534.