PbSe Thermoelectrics: Efficient Candidates for Power Generation and Cooling

Thermoelectric materials enable efficient and clean conversion between heat and electricity, offering significant application prospects in waste heat recovery and solid-state cooling. Lead selenide (PbSe) is a more abundant and cost-effective alternative to PbTe with promising potential for mid-temperature applications. However, things have changed very recently with the discovery of the traditional power generator PbSe being rather competitive as a thermoelectric cooler, opening new avenues for investigating this compound. This review aims to comb how the research achievements and promising performance of PbSe have shifted from medium to near-room temperatures, by comprehensively discussing various strategies to enhance the thermoelectric efficiency at different temperature ranges. Subsequently, it is reviewed how these advances in materials have triggered deep investigations on constructing high-efficiency power generation and cooling devices based on PbSe. Finally, a personal summary and outlook are presented on how to fully exploit the high-ranged thermoelectric performance of PbSe materials and manufacture high-efficiency power generators and coolers, thus promoting practical applications in the future.