The design of uranium-based thermoelectric (TE) materials presents a novel and intriguing strategy for directly converting nuclear heat into electrical power. Using high-level first-principles approach combined with accurate solution of Boltzmann transport equation, we demonstrate that a giant n-type power factor of 13.8 mW m-1 K-2 and a peak ZT value of 2.2 can be realized in the heavy-fermion UN2 compound at 700 K. Such promising TE performance arises from the large degeneracy (N v = 14) of heavy conduction band coupled with weak electron-phonon interactions, which is in principle governed by the strong Coulomb correlation among the partially filled U-5f electrons in the face-centered cubic structure. Collectively, our theoretical work suggests that the energetic UN2 could serve as both excellent heat source and efficient power convertor, which also uncovers an underexplored area for TE research.

中文翻译：

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用于放射性同位素热电应用的重费米子 UN2 系统中的高品质因数

铀基热电 (TE) 材料的设计为直接将核热转化为电能提供了一种新颖而有趣的策略。使用高级第一性原理方法结合玻尔兹曼输运方程的精确解，我们证明了在重载中可以实现 13.8 mW m-1 K-2 的巨大 n 型功率因数和 2.2 的峰值 ZT 值。费米子 UN2 化合物在 700 K。这种有希望的 TE 性能源于重导带的大简并性 (N v = 14) 以及弱电子 - 声子相互作用，这在原则上受部分填充的 U- 之间的强库仑相关性支配面心立方结构中的 5f 个电子。总的来说，我们的理论工作表明，充满活力的 UN2 可以作为出色的热源和高效的电源转换器，