https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-07621-8

A research team led by Professor Zhang Qian and Professor Mao Jun of the School of Materials Science and Engineering at Harbin Institute of Technology has discovered that trimagnesium dibismuthide (Mg3Bi2) single crystal has excellent plastic deformation ability and thermoelectric performance at room temperature. The research team created a centimeter-class high-quality magnesium bismuthide single crystal and discovered that the in-plane compressive strain of this single crystal was more than 75% and the tensile strain reached 100%. This value is an order of magnitude higher than conventional thermoelectric materials and even exceeds some metal materials with a similar crystal structure.

This plastic thermoelectric material could be used to develop flexible thermoelectric devices for use in generating electricity from human body heat and controlling body temperature.