简述了固态温差发电机与经典卡诺热机在热力学层面的异同，归纳了热电转换不可逆性的来源，分析表明了只有在限定电导率范围内提升材料热电优值才能使热电转换效率逼近理想卡诺热机效率.通过与内可逆卡诺热机最大输出功率的对比，得出接触热阻、热交换速率等对温差发电性能的重要影响.
This paper briefly describes the differences and similarities between solid-state thermoelectric generators and classical Carnot engines at the thermodynamic level. The reasons behind the irreversibility in solid-state thermoelectric conversion are summarized. Enhancing thermoelectric figure of merit can only push the energy conversion efficiency towards the ideal Carnot limit within a certain electric conductivity region. By comparing with the output power of endoreversible Carnot engines, this paper demonstrates the importance of contact thermal resistance and heat exchanging rate to the thermoelectric conversion performance.
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