Lattice Softening Significantly Reduces Thermal Conductivity and Leads to High Thermoelectric Efficiency

Hanus, Riley; Agne, Matthias T.; Rettie, Alexander J.  E.; Chen, Zhiwei; Tan, Gangjian; Chung, Duck Young; Kanatzidis, Mercouri G.; Pei, Yanzhong; Voorhees, Peter W.; Snyder, G. Jeffrey

doi:10.1002/adma.201900108

Lattice Softening Significantly Reduces Thermal Conductivity and Leads to High Thermoelectric Efficiency

Journal Article · Wed Apr 10 00:00:00 EDT 2019 · Advanced Materials

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1002/adma.201900108· OSTI ID:1513231

^[1]; ^[1]; Rettie, Alexander J. E. ^[2]; Chen, Zhiwei ^[3]; Tan, Gangjian ^[4]; Chung, Duck Young ^[2]; Kanatzidis, Mercouri G. ^[5]; Pei, Yanzhong ^[3]; Voorhees, Peter W. ^[1]; Snyder, G. Jeffrey ^[1]

Northwestern Univ., Evanston, IL (United States)
Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Lemont, IL (United States)
Tongji Univ., Shanghai (China)
Northwestern Univ., Evanston, IL (United States); Wuhan Univ. (China)
Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Lemont, IL (United States); Northwestern Univ., Evanston, IL (United States)

The influence of micro/nanostructure on thermal conductivity is a topic of great scientific interest, particularly to thermoelectrics. The current understanding is that structural defects decrease thermal conductivity through phonon scattering where the phonon dispersion and speed of sound are assumed to remain constant. Experimental work on a PbTe model system is presented, which show that the speed of sound linearly decreases with increased internal strain. This softening of the materials lattice completely accounts for the reduction in lattice thermal conductivity, without the introduction of additional phonon scattering mechanisms. Additionally, it is shown that a major contribution to the improvement in the thermoelectric figure of merit (zT > 2) of high-efficiency Na-doped PbTe can be attributed to lattice softening. While inhomogeneous internal strain fields are known to introduce phonon scattering centers, this study demonstrates that internal strain can modify phonon propagation speed as well. This introduces new avenues to control lattice thermal conductivity, beyond phonon scattering. In practice, many engineering materials will exhibit both softening and scattering effects, as is shown in silicon. Here, we shine new light on studies of thermal conductivity in fields of energy materials, microelectronics, and nanoscale heat transfer.

View Accepted Manuscript (DOE)

Research Organization:: Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Lemont, IL (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: National Natural Science Foundation of China; USDOE; USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES) (SC-22). Materials Sciences & Engineering Division

Grant/Contract Number:: AC02-06CH11357

OSTI ID:: 1513231

Alternate ID(s):: OSTI ID: 1506139

Journal Information:: Advanced Materials, Journal Name: Advanced Materials Journal Issue: 1900108 Vol. 19; ISSN 0935-9648

Publisher:: WileyCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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