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.

中文翻译：

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PbSe 热电技术：发电和冷却的高效候选者


热电材料可实现热能和电能之间的高效和清洁转换，在余热回收和固态冷却方面具有重要的应用前景。硒化铅 （PbSe） 是 PbTe 的更丰富且更具成本效益的替代品，在中温应用中具有广阔的潜力。然而，随着传统发电机 PbSe 作为热电冷却器的发现，情况发生了很大变化，为研究这种化合物开辟了新的途径。本文旨在通过全面讨论在不同温度范围内提高热电效率的各种策略，梳理 PbSe 的研究成果和有前景的性能是如何从中温转变为接近室温的。随后，本文回顾了这些材料的进步如何引发对基于 PbSe 构建高效发电和冷却装置的深入研究。最后，对如何充分利用 PbSe 材料的高范围热电性能并制造高效发电机和冷却器，从而促进未来的实际应用进行了个人总结和展望。