英语翻译Although Seebeckobserved thermoelectric phenomena in 182

英语翻译
Although Seebeckobserved thermoelectric phenomena in 1821 and Altenkirch defined the ZT equation in 1911,ittook several decades to develop the first functioning devices in the 1950s and1960s.4 They are now called the firstgeneration thermoelectrics with an average ZT of 1.0,and devices madeof them can operate at 4–6% conversion efficiency.Following several moredecades of stagnancy,new theoretical ideas relating to size effects on thethermoelectric properties in the 1990’s stimulated new experimental researchthat eventually led to significant advances in the following decade.Althoughthe theoretical ideas were originally about predictions on raising the powerfactor,the experimental breakthroughs were achieved by significantlydecreasing the (lattice) thermal conductivity.1,2,5–8 Among a wide variety of research approaches,one hasemerged,which has led to a near doubling of the ZT at high temperaturesand has defined the second generation of bulk thermoelectric materials with ZT in the range of 1.3–1.7.This approach uses nanoscale precipitates and compositional inhomogeneities todramatically suppress the lattice thermal conductivity.1,2,7,9,10 These second generation materials are expected toproduce power generation devices with conversion efficiencies of 11–15%.
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虽然Seebeck在1821年观察到了热电现象,而且Altenkirch在1911年就定义了ZT方程,但是到1950年代和1960年代开发出第一个功能器件还是花了几十年的时间.[4].它们现在被称为
第一代热电元件,平均ZT约1.0,用它们制成的器件可以以4～6%的转换效率工作.经过几十年的停滞不前,关于尺寸对热电性质的影响的新的理论概念于1990年的仿真新实验研究导致了后来十年的重大进展.虽然这些理论概念原来是关于对提高功率因子的预测的,但是因为明显降低了（晶格）的热导率,实验实现了突破[1,2,5-8].在名目繁多的研究方法中
涌现出了一种方法,这种方法导致了在高温下几乎翻倍的ZT值,而且已定义为第二代块料热电材料.其ZT的范围在1.1.7.这种方法采用纳米规模的析出物和组分不同质,从而大大抑制了晶格的热导率.[1,2,7,9,10].这些第二代的材料可望生产出转换效率达到11～15%的发电器件.