  The current state of the art for determining thermoelectric properties is
limited to the investigation of electrons or phonons without including the
inherent electron-phonon coupling that is in all materials. This gives rise to
limitations in accurately calculating base material properties that are in good
agreement with experimental data. Steepest-entropy-ascent quantum
thermodynamics is a general non-equilibrium thermodynamic ensemble framework
that provides a general equation of motion for non-equilibrium system state
evolution. This framework utilizes the electron and phonon density of states as
input to compute material properties, while taking into account the
electron-phonon coupling. It is able to span across multiple spatial and
temporal scales in a single analysis. Any system's thermoelectric properties
can, therefore, be attained provided the accurately determined density of
states is available.
