Thermoelectric and ionic thermoelectric materials are materials in which charge carriers move due to a temperature gradient. Using this property devices can be produced by putting n-type and p-type semiconductors in series to produce electricity from wase heat. Optimizing the semiconducting materials to have a maximal Seebeck or Soret coefficient on one hand, but also low resistance and low thermal conductivity is a challenge.  Finding new materials to test with optimized band structure, alloying and doping the materials and finely controlling the microstructure to produce high performance, low cost, non toxic and stable materials is the goal of our research.