Giant Seebeck coefficient thermoelectric device of MnO2 powder.

We report a giant Seebeck coefficient (S) thermoelectric (TE) material-MnO(2) powder-and the design of a practical MnO(2) TE generator to light up a regular light emitting diode (LED). The S of MnO(2) powder was measured to be higher than 20,000 μV K(-1), which is about 100 times higher than the state-of-the-art of Bi(2)Te(3), one of the best TE materials. The giant S is very possibly closely related to the surface density of the electronic state (DOS), the Fermi energy level. The very high S and therefore high power factor is technologically important for transient TE cooling.