Thermoelectric refrigerators are environmentally benign, quiet, and scalable; however their efficiency is limited by the material figure-of-merit – the thermoelectric figure-of-merit (Z) times the absolute temperature ZT. Nanostructured materials have led to significant enhancement in ZT. This technology uses nanocomposites synthesized from wet-chemistry and physical vapor condensation to create a scalable and economical thermoelectric refrigerators or generators.