Understanding the Role of Entropy in Designing High-Performance Thermoelectrics

Authors

• Subrata Ghosh, Pennsylvania State University, University Park
• Soongyu Kwon, Portland State University
• Wenjie Li, Pennsylvania State University, University Park,
• Dipika Mandal, Pennsylvania State University
• Amin Nozariasbmarz, Pennsylvania State University, University Park
• Marcia Ahn, Pennsylvania State University, University Park
• Sumanta K. Karan, Pennsylvania State University
• Allison M. Beese, Pennsylvania State University
• Yi Xia, Portland State UniversityFollow
• Shashank Priya, Pennsylvania State University
• Bed Poudel, Pennsylvania State University

Published In

Science Advances

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

7-3-2026

Subjects

High-Performance Thermoelectrics

Abstract

The design of high-entropy alloys is effective in lowering thermal conductivity but often reduces carrier mobility, thereby limiting electrical transport properties. Understanding the relationship among configurational entropy, thermal conductivity, and carrier mobility in high-entropy alloys is critical for enhancing thermoelectric performance. We demonstrate that a systematic and substantial increase in configurational entropy in half-Heusler alloys leads to an asymptotic reduction of lattice thermal conductivity. The reduced phonon group velocity and enhanced phonon scattering induced by atomic-scale chemical disorder result in a low lattice thermal conductivity of 2 watts per meter per kelvin at room temperature, with an achievable minimum of about 1.48 watts per meter per kelvin as disorder further increases, approaching the amorphous limit. Single-phase stabilization, along with optimized carrier mobility, is essential to preserve high electrical conductivity. Our results provide fundamental insights into integrating specific strategies with high-entropy design to simultaneously achieve low thermal conductivity and high thermoelectric performance, advantageous for high-temperature thermoelectric power generation applications.

Rights

Copyright (c) 2026 The Authors

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

DOI

10.1126/sciadv.aed6943

Persistent Identifier

https://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/45200

Citation Details

Ghosh, S., Kwon, S., Li, W., Mandal, D., Nozariasbmarz, A., Furton, E., Ahn, M., Karan, S. K., Beese, A. M., Xia, Y., Priya, S., & Poudel, B. (2026). Understanding the role of entropy in designing high-performance thermoelectrics. Science Advances, 12(27).