Associate Prof. Yaron Amouyal
Faculty:
Materials Science and Engineering
Main energy field:
Energy Conversion
Renewable Energy Sources
Thermoelectric waste heat recovery
High-efficiency telluride-based compounds for thermoelectric energy conversion at mid-range temperatures
Chemically stable and inexpensive oxides for thermoelectric energy conversion at elevated temperatures
About:
2018 – Assoc. Prof. at the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Technion, Israel
2011 – Asst. Prof. at the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Technion, Israel
2009 – Scientific Consultant at the Northwestern University Center for Atom-Probe Tomography (NUCAPT), Northwestern University, Evanston IL
2007 – 2010 – Post-doctoral Fellow at the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Northwestern University, Evanston IL
2009 – An Initiative for Sustainability and Energy at Northwestern University (ISEN) Fellowship
2008 – A Marie Curie International Outgoing Fellowship (IOF) of the seventh program (FP-7) of the Commission of the European Community (CEC)
PhD – 2007 – Technion, Materials Engineering
MSc – 2003 – Technion, Materials Engineering
BSc – 2001 – Technion, Materials Engineering
BA – 2001 – Technion, Physics
Research Area in Energy:
Thermoelectric materials; Designing functional properties of crystalline materials, Computational materials science based on the density functional theory (DFT), Atom-probe tomography (APT), Phase transformations in alloys, Energetics of interfaces in crystalline materials, electronic and thermal transport in oxides, interfaces in telluride-based compouds.
Research Interests:
Energy conversion and renewable energy: Adjusting the properties of thermoelectric materials for energy applications by nanostructuring Thermoelectric (TE) devices are capable of capturing waste heat and converting it into electricity; this has major implications for energy harvesting. We employ nanostructuring approaches for reducing thermal conductivity, based on the formation of coherent nanometer- size precipitates dispersed in a TE matrix. Utilizing advanced characterization techniques, we analyze the materials structure and chemistry down to the nanometer length-scale, correlating their microstructures with their TE properties. Supplemented by computational methods, we attempt to model the underlying physics of TE materials.
Selected Publications:
Azulay, T. Leibovitz, Y. Natanzon, O. Zabari, and Y. Amouyal: Ca3Mn2O7 Layered Perovskites: Effects of La- and Y-doping on Phase Stability, Microstructure, and Thermoelectric Transport. J. Amer. Ceram. Soc. 106 (1) 213-226 (2023).
Gayner, Y. Natanzon, Y. Kauffmann, and Y. Amouyal: On the correlation between thermoelectric properties and topological boundary states in Bi2Te3 based compounds: Effects of grain size and misorientation. ACS Appl. Mater. Inter. 14 (44) 49730-49745 (2022).
Gayner, Y. Natanzon, and Y. Amouyal: Effects of co-doping and microstructure on charge carrier energy filtering in thermoelectric titanium-doped zinc-aluminum-oxide, ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces 14 4035-4050 (2022).
Solomon, E. Song, C. Gayner, J. A. Martinez, and Y. Amouyal: Anomalous transport properties of nanostructured Bi2Te3: effects of microstructure and neodymium doping. ACS Appl. Nano Mater. 4 (5), 4419-4431 (2021).
H. Dahan, A. Baranovskiy, Y. Natanzon, and Y. Amouyal: A first-principles study of the temperature-dependent diffusion coefficients of silver in the thermoelectric compound PbTe. Acta Mater. 202 243-254 (2021).
Azulay, M. Wahabi, Y. Natanzon, Y. Kauffmann, and Y. Amouyal, Enhanced Charge Transport in Ca2MnO4-Layered Perovskites by Point Defect Engineering, ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces 12 49768-49776 (2020).
Natanzon, A. Azulay, and Y. Amouyal: Evaluation of polaron transport in solids from first-principles. A Review in the Israel Journal of Chemistry 60 (2020).
Gayner and Y. Amouyal: Energy Filtering of Charge Carriers: Current Trends, Challenges, and Prospects for Thermoelectric Materials. A Progress Report; The Technion Global Special Issue of Adv. Funct. Mater. 30 (18) 1901789 (2020).
Azulay and Y. Amouyal: Tailoring electronic and thermal transport properties of CaO(CaMnO3)m-based (m=1 and m=∞) composites for thermoelectric power generation, Acta Mater. 164, 481-492 (2019).
Sheskin, T. Schwarz, Y. Yu, S. Zhang, L. Abdellaoui, B. Gault, O. Cojocaru-Mirédin, Ch. Scheu, D. Raabe, M. Wuttig, and Y. Amouyal: Tailoring thermoelectric transport properties of Ag-alloyed PbTe: effects of microstructure evolution. ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces 10 (45), 38994-39001 (2018).
Amouyal, Y. Gelbstein, D. Fuks, Progress Report: Physical Metallurgy Inspired Nano-Features for Enhancement of Thermoelectric Conversion Efficiency, Advanced Theory & Simulations 1 (9), 1800072 (2018).
Baranovskiy, A. Graff, J. Klose, J. Mayer, and Y. Amouyal: On the origin of vibrational properties of calcium manganate based thermoelectric compounds. Nano Energy, 47, 451-462 (2018).
Yu, S. Zhang, A. M. Mio, B. Gault, A. Sheskin, C. Scheu, D. Raabe, F.-Q. Zu, M. Wuttig, Y. Amouyal and O. Cojocaru-Miredin: Ag-segregation to dislocations in PbTe-based thermoelectric materials. ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, 10 (4), 3609 (2018).
Grossfeld, A. Sheskin, Y. Gelbstein, and Y. Amouyal: Microstructure evolution of Ag-alloyed PbTe based compounds and implications for thermoelectric performance. Crystals 7 (9), 281 (2017).
Cojocaru-Miredin, L. Abdellaoui, M. Nagli, S. Zang, Y. Yu, Ch. Scheu, D. Raabe, M. Wuttig and Y. Amouyal: Role of nanostructuring in silver antimony telluride compounds for thermoelectric applications. ACS Appl. Mater. Int. 9 (17), 14779-14790 (2017).
Baranovskiy and Y. Amouyal: Dependence of electrical transport properties of CaO(CaMnO3)m (m=1,2,3,∞) thermoelectric oxides on lattice periodicity. J. Appl. Phys. 121 (6), 065103 (2017).
Koresh and Y. Amouyal: Effects of precipitation on the thermal conductivity of nickel-doped zinc oxide for thermoelectric applications J. Eur. Ceram. Soc. 37 (11), 3541-3550 (2017).
Baranovskiy and Y. Amouyal: Structural stability of calcium-manganate based CaO(CaMnO3)m (m = 1, 2, 3, ∞) compounds for thermoelectric applications, Journal of Alloys and Compounds 687, 562 (2016).
Amouyal and G. Schmitz: Atom probe tomography—A cornerstone in materials characterization. MRS Bulletin 41 (01), 13 (2016).
Graff and Y. Amouyal: Effects of Lattice Defects and Niobium Doping on Thermoelectric Properties of Calcium Manganate Compounds for Energy Harvesting Applications. J. Elect. Mater. 45 (3), 1508 (2016).
Joseph and Y. Amouyal: Enhancing thermoelectric performance of PbTe-based compounds by substituting elements: a first-principles study. J. Elect. Mater. 44 (6), 1460 (2015).
Joseph and Y. Amouyal: Towards a predictive route for selection of doping elements for the thermoelectric compound PbTe from first-principles. J. Appl. Phys. 117 (17), 175102 (2015).
Amouyal: Reducing Lattice Thermal Conductivity of the Thermoelectric Compound AgSbTe2 (P4/mmm) by Lanthanum Substitution: Computational and Experimental Approaches. J. Elect. Mater. 43 (10), 3772 (2014).
Graff and Y. Amouyal: Reduced thermal conductivity in niobium-doped calcium-manganate compounds for thermoelectric applications. Appl. Phys. Lett. 105 (18), 181906 (2014).
Amouyal: On the role of lanthanum substitution defects in reducing lattice thermal conductivity of the AgSbTe2 (P4/mmm) thermoelectric compound for energy conversion applications. Comp. Mater. Sci. 78, 98 (2013).