Low thermal conductivity and high thermoelectric figure of merit in p-type Sb2Te3/poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) thermoelectric composites

2014 ◽  
Vol 105 (2) ◽  
pp. 023901 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wenwen Zheng ◽  
Peng Bi ◽  
Haochen Kang ◽  
Wei Wei ◽  
Fengming Liu ◽  
...  
Author(s):  
А.А. Шабалдин ◽  
П.П. Константинов ◽  
Д.А. Курдюков ◽  
Л.Н. Лукьянова ◽  
А.Ю. Самунин ◽  
...  

AbstractNanocomposite thermoelectrics based on Bi_0.45Sb_1.55Te_2.985 solid solution of p -type conductivity are fabricated by the hot pressing of nanopowders of this solid solution with the addition of SiO_2 microparticles. Investigations of the thermoelectric properties show that the thermoelectric power of the nanocomposites increases in a wide temperature range of 80–420 K, while the thermal conductivity considerably decreases at 80–320 K, which, despite a decrease in the electrical conductivity, leads to an increase in the thermoelectric efficiency in the nanostructured material without the SiO_2 addition by almost 50% (at 300 K). When adding SiO_2, the efficiency decreases. The initial thermoelectric fabricated without nanostructuring, in which the maximal thermoelectric figure of merit ZT = 1 at 390 K, is most efficient at temperatures above 350 K.


1997 ◽  
Vol 478 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. Caillat ◽  
A. Borshchevsky ◽  
J. -P. Fleurial

Abstractβ-Zn4Sb3 was recently identified at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory as a new high performance p-type thermoelectric material with a maximum dimensionless thermoelectric figure of merit ZT of 1.4 at a temperature of 673K. A usual approach, used for many state-of-the-art thermoelectric materials, to further improve ZT values is to alloy β-Zn4Sb3 with isostructural compounds because of the expected decrease in lattice thermal conductivity. We have grown Zn4−xCdxSb3 crystals with 0.2≤x<1.2 and measured their thermal conductivity from 10 to 500K. The thermal conductivity values of Zn4−xCdxSb3 alloys are significantly lower than those measured for β-Zn4Sb3 and are comparable to its calculated minimum thermal conductivity. A strong atomic disorder is believed to be primarily at the origin of the very low thermal conductivity of these materials which are also fairly good electrical conductors and are therefore excellent candidates for thermoelectric applications.


Author(s):  
Jean-Numa Gillet ◽  
Sebastian Volz

The design of thermoelectric materials led to extensive research on superlattices with a low thermal conductivity. Indeed, the thermoelectric figure of merit ZT varies with the inverse of the thermal conductivity but is directly proportional to the power factor. Unfortunately, as nanowires, superlattices cancel heat conduction in only one main direction. Moreover they often show dislocations owing to lattice mismatches, which reduces their electrical conductivity and avoids a ZT larger than unity. Self-assembly is a major epitaxial technology to design ultradense arrays of germanium quantum dots (QDs) in silicon for many promising electronic and photonic applications as quantum computing. Accurate positioning of the self-assembled QD can now be achieved with few dislocations. We theoretically demonstrate that high-density three-dimensional (3-D) arrays of self-assembled Ge QDs, with a size of only some nanometers, in a Si matrix can also show an ultra-low thermal conductivity in the three spatial directions. This property can be considered to design new CMOS-compatible thermoelectric devices. To obtain a realistic and computationally-manageable model of these nanomaterials, we simulate their thermal behavior with atomic-scale 3-D phononic crystals. A phononic-crystal period (supercell) consists of diamond-like Si cells. At each supercell center, we substitute Si atoms by Ge atoms to form a box-like nanoparticle. Since this phononic crystal is periodic, we compute its phonon dispersion curves by classical lattice dynamics. Non-periodicities can be introduced with statistical distributions. From the flat dispersion curves, we obtain very small group velocities; this reduces the thermal conductivity in our phononic crystal compared to bulk Si. However, owing to the wave-particle duality at very small scales in quantum mechanics, another reduction arises from multiple scattering of the particle-like phonons in nanoparticle clusters. At room temperature, the thermal conductivity in an example phononic crystal can be reduced by a factor of at least 165 compared to bulk Si or below 0.95 W/mK. This value, which is lower than the classical Einstein limit of single crystalline Si, is an upper limit of the thermal conductivity since we use an incoherent-scattering approach for the nanoparticles. Because of its very low thermal conductivity, we hope to obtain a much larger ZT than unity in our atomic-scale 3-D phononic crystal. Indeed, this silicon-based nanomaterial is crystalline with a power factor that can be optimized by doping using CMOS-compatible processes. Future research on the phononic-crystal electrical conductivity has to be performed in order to compute the full ZT with a good accuracy.


2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (27) ◽  
pp. 13812-13819 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tribhuwan Pandey ◽  
Arun S. Nissimagoudar ◽  
Avanish Mishra ◽  
Abhishek K. Singh

We predict that mixed valent indium compounds exhibit a combination of high electrical conductivity, high thermopower, and low thermal conductivity, resulting in a large thermoelectric figure of merit.


2008 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 452-456 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wenzhong Wang ◽  
Xiao Yan ◽  
Bed Poudel ◽  
Yi Ma ◽  
Qing Hao ◽  
...  

We describe a one-step, one-pot non-aqueous route for the synthesis of Sb2Te3 nanocrystals with hexagonal shape and highly anisotropic nanostructures. The as-prepared nanostructures were characterized by XRD, TEM and HRTEM. The effect of the stabilizers on the nanocrystal morphology has been discussed in detail. We have studied the thermal conductivity of the compacted bulk from the Sb2 Te3 nanostructures. The results indicated that a very low thermal conductivity of about 1 W/mK at 300 K, comparing to 4.7 W/mK of the polycrystalline bulk, was achieved. The results indicated that nanostructured Sb2 Te3 is potentially a good candidate for engineered nanocomposites that can lead to high thermoelectric figure-of-merit.


2012 ◽  
Vol 621 ◽  
pp. 167-171
Author(s):  
Tao Hua Liang ◽  
Shi Qing Yang ◽  
Zhi Chen ◽  
Qing Xue Yang

p-type Bi0.5Sb1.5Te3+xTe thermoelectric crystals with various percentages of Te (x = 0.00 wt.%–3.00 wt.%) excess were prepared by the gradient freeze method. By doping with different Te contents, anti-site defects, Te vacancies and hole carrier concentrations were controlled. The Seebeck coefficient, resistivity, thermal conductivity, carrier concentration, and mobility were measured. The relationships between the Te content and thermoelectric properties were investigated in detail. The results suggested that the thermoelectric figure of merit ZT of the Bi0.5Sb1.5Te3+0.09wt.% crystals was 1.36 near room temperature, the optimum carrier concentration was 1.25 × 1019 cm-3, and the mobility was 1480 cm2 V-1 S-1, respectively.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document