Ultrahigh Power Factor in Thermoelectric System Nb 0.95 M 0.05 FeSb (M = Hf, Zr, and Ti)

Ren, Wuyang; Zhu, Hangtian; Zhu, Qing; Saparamadu, Udara; He, Ran; Liu, Zihang; Mao, Jun; Wang, Chao; Nielsch, Kornelius; Wang, Zhiming; Ren, Zhifeng

doi:10.1002/advs.201800278

Title: Ultrahigh Power Factor in Thermoelectric System Nb _0.95 M _0.05 FeSb (M = Hf, Zr, and Ti)

Journal Article · Wed May 02 00:00:00 EDT 2018 · Advanced Science

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1002/advs.201800278· OSTI ID:1435846

Ren, Wuyang ^[1]; Zhu, Hangtian ^[2]; Zhu, Qing ^[2]; Saparamadu, Udara ^[2]; He, Ran ^[3]; Liu, Zihang ^[2]; Mao, Jun ^[2]; Wang, Chao ^[4]; Nielsch, Kornelius ^[3]; Wang, Zhiming ^[5];

^[2]

Institute of Fundamental and Frontier Sciences University of Electronic Science and Technology of China Chengdu 610054 China, Department of Physics and Texas Center for Superconductivity University of Houston Houston TX 77204 USA
Department of Physics and Texas Center for Superconductivity University of Houston Houston TX 77204 USA
Institute for Metallic Materials IFW‐Dresden Dresden 01069 Germany
State Key Laboratory of Electronic Thin Films and Integrated Devices School of Microelectronics and Solid‐state Electronics University of Electronic Science and Technology of China Chengdu 611731 China
Institute of Fundamental and Frontier Sciences University of Electronic Science and Technology of China Chengdu 610054 China

Abstract Conversion efficiency and output power are crucial parameters for thermoelectric power generation that highly rely on figure of merit ZT and power factor (PF), respectively. Therefore, the synergistic optimization of electrical and thermal properties is imperative instead of optimizing just ZT by thermal conductivity reduction or just PF by electron transport enhancement. Here, it is demonstrated that Nb _0.95 Hf _0.05 FeSb has not only ultrahigh PF over ≈100 µW cm ⁻¹ K ⁻² at room temperature but also the highest ZT in a material system Nb _0.95 M _0.05 FeSb (M = Hf, Zr, Ti). It is found that Hf dopant is capable to simultaneously supply carriers for mobility optimization and introduce atomic disorder for reducing lattice thermal conductivity. As a result, Nb _0.95 Hf _0.05 FeSb distinguishes itself from other outstanding NbFeSb‐based materials in both the PF and ZT . Additionally, a large output power density of ≈21.6 W cm ⁻² is achieved based on a single‐leg device under a temperature difference of ≈560 K, showing the realistic prospect of the ultrahigh PF for power generation.

View Journal Article

Cite

Export

Save

Research Organization:: Univ of Houston System, 4800 Calhoun, Houston Texas 77004, United States

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE

Grant/Contract Number:: SC0010831

OSTI ID:: 1435846

Alternate ID(s):: OSTI ID: 1435847; OSTI ID: 1498959

Journal Information:: Advanced Science, Journal Name: Advanced Science Vol. 5 Journal Issue: 7; ISSN 2198-3844

Publisher:: Wiley Blackwell (John Wiley & Sons)Copyright Statement

Country of Publication:: Germany

Language:: English

Citation Metrics:

Cited by: 34 works

Citation information provided by
Web of Science

References (66)

Realizing high figure of merit in heavy-band p-type half-Heusler thermoelectric materials Fu, Chenguang; Bai, Shengqiang; Liu, Yintu Nature Communications, Vol. 6, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms9144	journal	September 2015
Thermoelectric Devices for Power Generation: Recent Progress and Future Challenges : Thermoelectric Devices for Power Generation Zhang, Qi Hao; Huang, Xiang Yang; Bai, Sheng Qiang Advanced Engineering Materials, Vol. 18, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.1002/adem.201500333	journal	September 2015
Phonon scattering at grain boundaries in heavily doped fine-grained silicon–germanium alloys Rowe, D. M.; Shukla, V. S.; Savvides, N. Nature, Vol. 290, Issue 5809 https://doi.org/10.1038/290765a0	journal	April 1981
Manipulation of ionized impurity scattering for achieving high thermoelectric performance in n-type Mg ₃ Sb ₂ -based materials Mao, Jun; Shuai, Jing; Song, Shaowei Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Vol. 114, Issue 40 https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1711725114	journal	September 2017
Beneficial Contribution of Alloy Disorder to Electron and Phonon Transport in Half-Heusler Thermoelectric Materials Xie, Hanhui; Wang, Heng; Pei, Yanzhong Advanced Functional Materials, Vol. 23, Issue 41 https://doi.org/10.1002/adfm.201300663	journal	April 2013
High-performance half-Heusler thermoelectric materials Hf1−x ZrxNiSn1−ySby prepared by levitation melting and spark plasma sintering Yu, Cui; Zhu, Tie-Jun; Shi, Rui-Zhi Acta Materialia, Vol. 57, Issue 9 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actamat.2009.02.026	journal	May 2009
High Band Degeneracy Contributes to High Thermoelectric Performance in p-Type Half-Heusler Compounds Fu, Chenguang; Zhu, Tiejun; Pei, Yanzhong Advanced Energy Materials, Vol. 4, Issue 18 https://doi.org/10.1002/aenm.201400600	journal	August 2014
Increased Phonon Scattering by Nanograins and Point Defects in Nanostructured Silicon with a Low Concentration of Germanium Zhu, G. H.; Lee, H.; Lan, Y. C. Physical Review Letters, Vol. 102, Issue 19 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.102.196803	journal	May 2009
Novel Principles and Nanostructuring Methods for Enhanced Thermoelectrics Mori, Takao Small, Vol. 13, Issue 45 https://doi.org/10.1002/smll.201702013	journal	September 2017
Complex thermoelectric materials Snyder, G. Jeffrey; Toberer, Eric S. Nature Materials, Vol. 7, Issue 2, p. 105-114 https://doi.org/10.1038/nmat2090	journal	February 2008
The intrinsic disorder related alloy scattering in ZrNiSn half-Heusler thermoelectric materials Xie, Hanhui; Wang, Heng; Fu, Chenguang Scientific Reports, Vol. 4, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1038/srep06888	journal	November 2014
Recent progress of half-Heusler for moderate temperature thermoelectric applications Chen, Shuo; Ren, Zhifeng Materials Today, Vol. 16, Issue 10 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mattod.2013.09.015	journal	October 2013
Unique Role of Refractory Ta Alloying in Enhancing the Figure of Merit of NbFeSb Thermoelectric Materials Yu, Junjie; Fu, Chenguang; Liu, Yintu Advanced Energy Materials, Vol. 8, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1002/aenm.201701313	journal	September 2017
Mechanical properties of half-Heusler alloys Rogl, G.; Grytsiv, A.; Gürth, M. Acta Materialia, Vol. 107 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actamat.2016.01.031	journal	April 2016
High Thermoelectric Performance via Hierarchical Compositionally Alloyed Nanostructures Zhao, Li-Dong; Hao, Shiqiang; Lo, Shih-Han Journal of the American Chemical Society, Vol. 135, Issue 19 https://doi.org/10.1021/ja403134b	journal	May 2013
Achieving high power factor and output power density in p-type half-Heuslers Nb _1-x Ti _x FeSb He, Ran; Kraemer, Daniel; Mao, Jun Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Vol. 113, Issue 48 https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1617663113	journal	November 2016
Direct Observation of Inherent Atomic-Scale Defect Disorders responsible for High-Performance Ti ₁₋ _x Hf _x NiSn ₁₋ _y Sb _y Half-Heusler Thermoelectric Alloys Kim, Ki Sung; Kim, Young-Min; Mun, Hyeona Advanced Materials, Vol. 29, Issue 36 https://doi.org/10.1002/adma.201702091	journal	July 2017
Thermal Resistance due to Point Defects at High Temperatures Klemens, P. G. Physical Review, Vol. 119, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRev.119.507	journal	July 1960
Simultaneous Optimization of Carrier Concentration and Alloy Scattering for Ultrahigh Performance GeTe Thermoelectrics Li, Juan; Chen, Zhiwei; Zhang, Xinyue Advanced Science, Vol. 4, Issue 12 https://doi.org/10.1002/advs.201700341	journal	September 2017
High-performance bulk thermoelectrics with all-scale hierarchical architectures Biswas, Kanishka; He, Jiaqing; Blum, Ivan D. Nature, Vol. 489, Issue 7416, p. 414-418 https://doi.org/10.1038/nature11439	journal	September 2012
Evaluation of Half-Heusler Compounds as Thermoelectric Materials Based on the Calculated Electrical Transport Properties Yang, Jiong; Li, Huanming; Wu, Ting Advanced Functional Materials, Vol. 18, Issue 19, p. 2880-2888 https://doi.org/10.1002/adfm.200701369	journal	October 2008
Identifying the Specific Nanostructures Responsible for the High Thermoelectric Performance of (Bi,Sb) ₂ Te ₃ Nanocomposites Xie, Wenjie; He, Jian; Kang, Hye Jung Nano Letters, Vol. 10, Issue 9 https://doi.org/10.1021/nl100804a	journal	September 2010
Manipulating Band Convergence and Resonant State in Thermoelectric Material SnTe by Mn–In Codoping Wang, Ling; Tan, Xiaojian; Liu, Guoqiang ACS Energy Letters, Vol. 2, Issue 5 https://doi.org/10.1021/acsenergylett.7b00285	journal	April 2017
Thermoelectric Cooling and Power Generation DiSalvo, F. J. Science, Vol. 285, Issue 5428, p. 703-706 https://doi.org/10.1126/science.285.5428.703	journal	July 1999
Relationship between thermoelectric figure of merit and energy conversion efficiency Kim, Hee Seok; Liu, Weishu; Chen, Gang Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Vol. 112, Issue 27 https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1510231112	journal	June 2015
NbFeSb-based p-type half-Heuslers for power generation applications Joshi, Giri; He, Ran; Engber, Michael Energy Environ. Sci., Vol. 7, Issue 12 https://doi.org/10.1039/C4EE02180K	journal	January 2014
Engineering half-Heusler thermoelectric materials using Zintl chemistry Zeier, Wolfgang G.; Schmitt, Jennifer; Hautier, Geoffroy Nature Reviews Materials, Vol. 1, Issue 6 https://doi.org/10.1038/natrevmats.2016.32	journal	May 2016
Tuning the carrier scattering mechanism to effectively improve the thermoelectric properties Shuai, Jing; Mao, Jun; Song, Shaowei Energy & Environmental Science, Vol. 10, Issue 3 https://doi.org/10.1039/C7EE00098G	journal	January 2017
Improved thermoelectric performance of n-type half-Heusler MCo1-xNixSb (M = Hf, Zr) He, Ran; Zhu, Hangtian; Sun, Jingying Materials Today Physics, Vol. 1 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mtphys.2017.05.002	journal	June 2017
Advances in thermoelectric materials research: Looking back and moving forward He, Jian; Tritt, Terry M. Science, Vol. 357, Issue 6358 https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aak9997	journal	September 2017
High Efficiency Half-Heusler Thermoelectric Materials for Energy Harvesting Zhu, Tiejun; Fu, Chenguang; Xie, Hanhui Advanced Energy Materials, Vol. 5, Issue 19 https://doi.org/10.1002/aenm.201500588	journal	July 2015
Tellurium doped n-type Zintl Zr3Ni3Sb4 thermoelectric materials: Balance between carrier-scattering mechanism and bipolar effect Liu, Zihang; Mao, Jun; Peng, Shengyuan Materials Today Physics, Vol. 2 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mtphys.2017.08.002	journal	September 2017
Promoting SnTe as an Eco-Friendly Solution for p-PbTe Thermoelectric via Band Convergence and Interstitial Defects Li, Wen; Zheng, Linglang; Ge, Binghui Advanced Materials, Vol. 29, Issue 17 https://doi.org/10.1002/adma.201605887	journal	March 2017
Effect of Hf Concentration on Thermoelectric Properties of Nanostructured N-Type Half-Heusler Materials Hf _x Zr _1-x NiSn _0.99 Sb _0.01 Chen, Shuo; Lukas, Kevin C.; Liu, Weishu Advanced Energy Materials, Vol. 3, Issue 9 https://doi.org/10.1002/aenm.201300336	journal	May 2013
Compromise and Synergy in High-Efficiency Thermoelectric Materials Zhu, Tiejun; Liu, Yintu; Fu, Chenguang Advanced Materials, Vol. 29, Issue 14 https://doi.org/10.1002/adma.201605884	journal	March 2017
Stronger phonon scattering by larger differences in atomic mass and size in p-type half-Heuslers Hf_1−xTi_xCoSb_0.8Sn_0.2 Yan, Xiao; Liu, Weishu; Wang, Hui Energy & Environmental Science, Vol. 5, Issue 6, p. 7543-7548 https://doi.org/10.1039/c2ee21554c	journal	January 2012
Effect of Point Imperfections on Lattice Thermal Conductivity Callaway, Joseph; von Baeyer, Hans C. Physical Review, Vol. 120, Issue 4 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRev.120.1149	journal	November 1960
Do we really need high thermoelectric figures of merit? A critical appraisal to the power conversion efficiency of thermoelectric materials Narducci, Dario Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 99, Issue 10 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.3634018	journal	September 2011
Low Sound Velocity Contributing to the High Thermoelectric Performance of Ag ₈ SnSe ₆ Li, Wen; Lin, Siqi; Ge, Binghui Advanced Science, Vol. 3, Issue 11 https://doi.org/10.1002/advs.201600196	journal	July 2016
Enhancement in Thermoelectric Figure-Of-Merit of an N-Type Half-Heusler Compound by the Nanocomposite Approach Joshi, Giri; Yan, Xiao; Wang, Hengzhi Advanced Energy Materials, Vol. 1, Issue 4, p. 643-647 https://doi.org/10.1002/aenm.201100126	journal	May 2011
A rapid method to extract Seebeck coefficient under a large temperature difference Zhu, Qing; Kim, Hee Seok; Ren, Zhifeng Review of Scientific Instruments, Vol. 88, Issue 9 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4986965	journal	September 2017
Dense dislocation arrays embedded in grain boundaries for high-performance bulk thermoelectrics Kim, Sang Il; Lee, Kyu Hyoung; Mun, Hyeon A. Science, Vol. 348, Issue 6230 https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aaa4166	journal	April 2015
Enhancing the Figure of Merit of Heavy-Band Thermoelectric Materials Through Hierarchical Phonon Scattering Fu, Chenguang; Wu, Haijun; Liu, Yintu Advanced Science, Vol. 3, Issue 8 https://doi.org/10.1002/advs.201600035	journal	March 2016
Enhanced Thermoelectric Figure of Merit of p-Type Half-Heuslers Yan, Xiao; Joshi, Giri; Liu, Weishu Nano Letters, Vol. 11, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.1021/nl104138t	journal	February 2011
Cubic AgPb_mSbTe_2+m: Bulk Thermoelectric Materials with High Figure of Merit Hsu, Kuei Fang; Loo, Sim; Guo, Fu Science, Vol. 303, Issue 5659, p. 818-821 https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1092963	journal	February 2004
Thermoelectric Properties of n-type ZrNiPb-Based Half-Heuslers Mao, Jun; Zhou, Jiawei; Zhu, Hangtian Chemistry of Materials, Vol. 29, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.chemmater.6b04898	journal	January 2017
Cooling, Heating, Generating Power, and Recovering Waste Heat with Thermoelectric Systems Bell, L. E. Science, Vol. 321, Issue 5895, p. 1457-1461 https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1158899	journal	September 2008
Thermoelectric Property Study of Nanostructured p-Type Half-Heuslers (Hf, Zr, Ti)CoSb _0.8 Sn _0.2 Yan, Xiao; Liu, Weishu; Chen, Shuo Advanced Energy Materials, Vol. 3, Issue 9 https://doi.org/10.1002/aenm.201200973	journal	May 2013
Vacancy-induced dislocations within grains for high-performance PbSe thermoelectrics Chen, Zhiwei; Ge, Binghui; Li, Wen Nature Communications, Vol. 8, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms13828	journal	January 2017
Epitaxial growth and thermal-conductivity limit of single-crystalline Bi2Se3/In2Se3 superlattices on mica Ren, Wuyang; Li, Handong; Gao, Lei Nano Research, Vol. 10, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-016-1282-8	journal	October 2016
Sb Doping of Metallic CuCr ₂ S ₄ as a Route to Highly Improved Thermoelectric Properties Khan, Atta Ullah; Orabi, Rabih Al Rahal Al; Pakdel, Amir Chemistry of Materials, Vol. 29, Issue 7 https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.chemmater.6b05344	journal	February 2017
Thermal Conductivity of Silicon and Germanium from 3°K to the Melting Point Glassbrenner, C. J.; Slack, Glen A. Physical Review, Vol. 134, Issue 4A https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRev.134.A1058	journal	May 1964
Dislocation strain as the mechanism of phonon scattering at grain boundaries Kim, Hyun-Sik; Kang, Stephen D.; Tang, Yinglu Materials Horizons, Vol. 3, Issue 3 https://doi.org/10.1039/C5MH00299K	journal	January 2016
Band engineering of high performance p-type FeNbSb based half-Heusler thermoelectric materials for figure of merit zT > 1 Fu, Chenguang; Zhu, Tiejun; Liu, Yintu Energy & Environmental Science, Vol. 8, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1039/C4EE03042G	journal	January 2015
High Performance Thermoelectrics from Earth-Abundant Materials: Enhanced Figure of Merit in PbS by Second Phase Nanostructures Zhao, Li-Dong; Lo, Shih-Han; He, Jiaqing Journal of the American Chemical Society, Vol. 133, Issue 50 https://doi.org/10.1021/ja208658w	journal	December 2011
Thermoelectricity Generation and Electron-Magnon Scattering in a Natural Chalcopyrite Mineral from a Deep-Sea Hydrothermal Vent Ang, Ran; Khan, Atta Ullah; Tsujii, Naohito Angewandte Chemie International Edition, Vol. 54, Issue 44 https://doi.org/10.1002/anie.201505517	journal	September 2015
On the Half-Heusler compounds Nb1-x{Ti,Zr,Hf}xFeSb: Phase relations, thermoelectric properties at low and high temperature, and mechanical properties Tavassoli, A.; Failamani, F.; Grytsiv, A. Acta Materialia, Vol. 135 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actamat.2017.06.011	journal	August 2017
High thermoelectric performance of α-MgAgSb for power generation Liu, Zihang; Mao, Jun; Sui, Jiehe Energy & Environmental Science, Vol. 11, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1039/C7EE02504A	journal	January 2018
Defect Engineering for Realizing High Thermoelectric Performance in n-Type Mg ₃ Sb ₂ -Based Materials Mao, Jun; Wu, Yixuan; Song, Shaowei ACS Energy Letters, Vol. 2, Issue 10 https://doi.org/10.1021/acsenergylett.7b00742	journal	September 2017
On the Origin of Increased Phonon Scattering in Nanostructured PbTe Based Thermoelectric Materials He, Jiaqing; Sootsman, Joseph R.; Girard, Steven N. Journal of the American Chemical Society, Vol. 132, Issue 25 https://doi.org/10.1021/ja1010948	journal	June 2010
Recent Advances in Nanostructured Thermoelectric Half-Heusler Compounds Xie, Wenjie; Weidenkaff, Anke; Tang, Xinfeng Nanomaterials, Vol. 2, Issue 4 https://doi.org/10.3390/nano2040379	journal	November 2012
High-Thermoelectric Performance of Nanostructured Bismuth Antimony Telluride Bulk Alloys Poudel, B.; Hao, Q.; Ma, Y. Science, Vol. 320, Issue 5876, p. 634-638 https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1156446	journal	May 2008
Copper ion liquid-like thermoelectrics Liu, Huili; Shi, Xun; Xu, Fangfang Nature Materials, Vol. 11, Issue 5, p. 422-425 https://doi.org/10.1038/nmat3273	journal	March 2012
Ultrahigh power factor and thermoelectric performance in hole-doped single-crystal SnSe Zhao, L.-D.; Tan, G.; Hao, S. Science, Vol. 351, Issue 6269, p. 141-144 https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aad3749	journal	November 2015
Demonstration of a phonon-glass electron-crystal strategy in (Hf,Zr)NiSn half-Heusler thermoelectric materials by alloying Liu, Yintu; Xie, Hanhui; Fu, Chenguang Journal of Materials Chemistry A, Vol. 3, Issue 45 https://doi.org/10.1039/C5TA04418A	journal	January 2015
Lithium Doping to Enhance Thermoelectric Performance of MgAgSb with Weak Electron-Phonon Coupling Liu, Zihang; Wang, Yumei; Mao, Jun Advanced Energy Materials, Vol. 6, Issue 7 https://doi.org/10.1002/aenm.201502269	journal	January 2016

Figures / Tables (6)

Similar Records

Half-Heusler alloys as emerging high power density thermoelectric cooling materials

Journal Article · Tue Jun 06 00:00:00 EDT 2023 · Nature Communications · OSTI ID:1435846

Zhu, Hangtian; Li, Wenjie; Nozariasbmarz, Amin; +4 more

Grain Boundary Phases in NbFeSb Half‐Heusler Alloys: A New Avenue to Tune Transport Properties of Thermoelectric Materials

Journal Article · Wed Feb 15 00:00:00 EST 2023 · Advanced Energy Materials · OSTI ID:1435846

Bueno Villoro, Ruben; Zavanelli, Duncan; Jung, Chanwon; +8 more

Unique Role of Refractory Ta Alloying in Enhancing the Figure of Merit of NbFeSb Thermoelectric Materials

Journal Article · Thu Sep 07 00:00:00 EDT 2017 · Advanced Energy Materials · OSTI ID:1435846

Yu, Junjie; Fu, Chenguang; Liu, Yintu; +6 more

Related Subjects

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION
half-Heusler compounds
power generation
simultaneous optimization
thermoelectric materials

Title: Ultrahigh Power Factor in Thermoelectric System Nb 0.95 M 0.05 FeSb (M = Hf, Zr, and Ti)

Citation Formats

References (66)

Figures / Tables (6)

Similar Records

Related Subjects

Title: Ultrahigh Power Factor in Thermoelectric System Nb _0.95 M _0.05 FeSb (M = Hf, Zr, and Ti)