Cooling Performance of Thermoelectric Cooling (TEC) and Applications: A review

Thermoelectric cooling (TEC) is a new attractive method that is can be used as a temperature controller. Thermoelectric module (TEM) is a device that environmentally friendly utilizing for cooling and heating application such as heat pump and power generation. Therefore, the understanding of relation between electrical conductivity and heat conductivity of the TEC material is essentially to improve the coefficient of performance (COP) efficiency. The figure of merit is addressed by focusing the best material in TEC with different cooling material. The critical finding of TEC for this review paper is the higher the electrical conductivity and the lower thermal conductivity, the maximum the COP. Finally, the possiblity of the TEC application is reviewed according to the advantages of TEC such as high reliability, less maintenance and compact size that commercially found in large range of thermoelectric cooling system.