skip to main content
OSTI.GOV title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: Revelation of Inherently High Mobility Enables Mg3Sb2 as a Sustainable Alternative to n-Bi2Te3 Thermoelectrics

Journal Article · · Advanced Science
 [1];  [1];  [1];  [1];  [1];  [1];  [1];  [2];  [2]; ORCiD logo [1]
  1. Interdisciplinary Materials Research CenterSchool of Materials Science and EngineeringTongji University 4800 Caoan Road Shanghai 201804 China
  2. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory 1 Cyclotron Road Berkeley CA 94720 USA

Over the past years, thermoelectric Mg3Sb2 alloys particularly in n-type conduction, have attracted increasing attentions for thermoelectric applications, due to the multivalley conduction band, abundance of constituents, and less toxicity. However, the high vapor pressure, causticity of Mg, and the high melting point of Mg3Sb2 tend to cause the inclusion in the materials of boundary phases and defects that affect the transport properties. In this work, a utilization of tantalum-sealing for melting enables n-type Mg3Sb2 alloys to show a substantially higher mobility than ever reported, which can be attributed to the purification of phases and to the coarse grains. Importantly, the inherently high mobility successfully enables the thermoelectric figure of merit in optimal compositions to be highly competitive to that of commercially available n-type Bi2Te3 alloys and to be higher than that of other known n-type thermoelectrics at 300-500 K. This work reveals Mg3Sb2 alloys as a top candidate for near-room-temperature thermoelectric applications.

Research Organization:
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC); National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC02-05CH11231
OSTI ID:
1560221
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 1560224; OSTI ID: 1560607
Journal Information:
Advanced Science, Journal Name: Advanced Science Vol. 6 Journal Issue: 16; ISSN 2198-3844
Publisher:
WileyCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
Germany
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 66 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

References (78)

Concerted Rattling in CsAg 5 Te 3 Leading to Ultralow Thermal Conductivity and High Thermoelectric Performance journal August 2016
Synthesis and properties of CaCd2Sb2 and EuCd2Sb2 journal January 2010
Low effective mass leading to high thermoelectric performance journal January 2012
Optimum Carrier Concentration in n-Type PbTe Thermoelectrics journal May 2014
Manipulation of ionized impurity scattering for achieving high thermoelectric performance in n-type Mg 3 Sb 2 -based materials journal September 2017
Lattice Thermal Conductivity of Disordered Semiconductor Alloys at High Temperatures journal September 1963
Complex thermoelectric materials journal February 2008
Enhanced thermoelectric properties of Bi2(Te1−xSex)3-based compounds as n-type legs for low-temperature power generation journal January 2012
Multiple-Filled Skutterudites: High Thermoelectric Figure of Merit through Separately Optimizing Electrical and Thermal Transports journal May 2011
Electronic and transport properties of zintl phase Ae Mg 2 Pn 2 , Ae  = Ca,Sr,Ba, Pn  = As,Sb,Bi in relation to Mg 3 Sb 2 journal October 2013
Tuning bands of PbSe for better thermoelectric efficiency journal January 2014
Designing high-performance layered thermoelectric materials through orbital engineering journal March 2016
Rationalizing phonon dispersion for lattice thermal conductivity of solids journal September 2018
Computational prediction of a high ZT of n-type Mg 3 Sb 2 -based compounds with isotropic thermoelectric conduction performance journal January 2018
Tuning Multiscale Microstructures to Enhance Thermoelectric Performance of n-Type Bismuth-Telluride-Based Solid Solutions journal June 2015
Convergence of electronic bands for high performance bulk thermoelectrics journal May 2011
n-type thermoelectric material Mg 2 Sn 0.75 Ge 0.25 for high power generation journal March 2015
Improved Thermoelectric Performance of Silver Nanoparticles-Dispersed Bi 2 Te 3 Composites Deriving from Hierarchical Two-Phased Heterostructure journal December 2014
Lattice Dislocations Enhancing Thermoelectric PbTe in Addition to Band Convergence journal April 2017
Optimizations of Pulsed Plated p and n-type Bi 2 Te 3 -Based Ternary Compounds by Annealing in Different Ambient Atmospheres journal August 2012
Simultaneous Optimization of Carrier Concentration and Alloy Scattering for Ultrahigh Performance GeTe Thermoelectrics journal September 2017
Convergence of Conduction Bands as a Means of Enhancing Thermoelectric Performance of n -Type Mg 2 Si 1 x Sn x Solid Solutions journal April 2012
Exceptional thermoelectric performance in Mg 3 Sb 0.6 Bi 1.4 for low-grade waste heat recovery journal January 2019
Thermal Resistance due to Point Defects at High Temperatures journal July 1960
High thermoelectric performance in Te-free (Bi,Sb) 2 Se 3 via structural transition induced band convergence and chemical bond softening journal January 2016
Single parabolic band transport in p-type EuZn 2 Sb 2 thermoelectrics journal January 2017
Recent progress and future challenges on thermoelectric Zintl materials journal June 2017
Observation of room-temperature ballistic thermal conduction persisting over 8.3 µm in SiGe nanowires journal June 2013
Investigation of n-type doping strategies for Mg 3 Sb 2 journal January 2018
Extraordinary thermoelectric performance in n-type manganese doped Mg3Sb2 Zintl: High band degeneracy, tuned carrier scattering mechanism and hierarchical microstructure journal October 2018
Atomic Disorders Induced by Silver and Magnesium Ion Migrations Favor High Thermoelectric Performance in α-MgAgSb-Based Materials journal September 2015
Thermoelectric Bi 2 Te 3 -improved charge collection for high-performance dye-sensitized solar cells journal January 2012
Tellurium as a high-performance elemental thermoelectric journal January 2016
On the electronic structure of the semiconducting compounds Mg 3 Bi 2 and Mg 3 Sb 2 journal January 1984
Tuning the carrier scattering mechanism to effectively improve the thermoelectric properties journal January 2017
Enhanced thermoelectric figure of merit in nanostructured n-type silicon germanium bulk alloy journal November 2008
Wet chemical synthesis and thermoelectric properties of V-VI one- and two-dimensional nanostructures journal January 2010
Advanced thermoelectrics governed by a single parabolic band: Mg 2 Si 0.3 Sn 0.7 , a canonical example journal January 2014
Mg 3+ δ Sb x Bi 2− x Family: A Promising Substitute for the State-of-the-Art n-Type Thermoelectric Materials near Room Temperature journal December 2018
High Lattice Thermal Conductivity Solids book January 2006
Enhanced thermoelectric performance of Mg 2 Si 0.4 Sn 0.6 solid solutions by in nanostructures and minute Bi-doping journal August 2013
Mg Alloying in SnTe Facilitates Valence Band Convergence and Optimizes Thermoelectric Properties journal January 2015
Band engineering in Mg 3 Sb 2 by alloying with Mg 3 Bi 2 for enhanced thermoelectric performance journal January 2018
Anomalous electrical conductivity of n-type Te-doped Mg3.2Sb1.5Bi0.5 journal December 2017
Band Degeneracy, Low Thermal Conductivity, and High Thermoelectric Figure of Merit in SnTe–CaTe Alloys journal December 2015
An Unlikely Route to Low Lattice Thermal Conductivity: Small Atoms in a Simple Layered Structure journal September 2018
Phase Boundary Mapping to Obtain n-type Mg3Sb2-Based Thermoelectrics journal January 2018
Advances in Thermoelectric Mg 3 Sb 2 and Its Derivatives journal July 2018
Effect of Point Imperfections on Lattice Thermal Conductivity journal November 1960
Low Electron Scattering Potentials in High Performance Mg 2 Si 0.45 Sn 0.55 Based Thermoelectric Solid Solutions with Band Convergence journal April 2013
Low Sound Velocity Contributing to the High Thermoelectric Performance of Ag 8 SnSe 6 journal July 2016
Stabilizing the Optimal Carrier Concentration for High Thermoelectric Efficiency journal November 2011
Discovery of high-performance low-cost n-type Mg3Sb2-based thermoelectric materials with multi-valley conduction bands journal January 2017
Dense dislocation arrays embedded in grain boundaries for high-performance bulk thermoelectrics journal April 2015
Broad temperature plateau for thermoelectric figure of merit ZT>2 in phase-separated PbTe0.7S0.3 journal July 2014
Cubic AgPbmSbTe2+m: Bulk Thermoelectric Materials with High Figure of Merit journal February 2004
Band and scattering tuning for high performance thermoelectric Sn1−xMnxTe alloys journal December 2015
Enhancement of average thermoelectric figure of merit by increasing the grain-size of Mg 3.2 Sb 1.5 Bi 0.49 Te 0.01 journal January 2018
Intrinsically Minimal Thermal Conductivity in Cubic IVVI2 Semiconductors journal July 2008
Vacancy-induced dislocations within grains for high-performance PbSe thermoelectrics journal January 2017
Synthesis and characterization of the divalent samarium Zintl-phases SmMg2Bi2 and SmMg2Sb2 journal November 2015
Significant Role of Mg Stoichiometry in Designing High Thermoelectric Performance for Mg 3 (Sb,Bi) 2 -Based n-Type Zintls journal January 2018
Isotropic Conduction Network and Defect Chemistry in Mg 3+ δ Sb 2 -Based Layered Zintl Compounds with High Thermoelectric Performance journal September 2016
Electronic origin of the high thermoelectric performance of GeTe among the p-type group IV monotellurides journal March 2017
High-Performance Low-Cost n-Type Se-Doped Mg 3 Sb 2 -Based Zintl Compounds for Thermoelectric Application journal May 2017
Thermoelectric properties and microstructure of Mg3Sb2 journal August 2006
Defect Engineering for Realizing High Thermoelectric Performance in n-Type Mg 3 Sb 2 -Based Materials journal September 2017
Effective dopants in p-type elementary Te thermoelectrics journal January 2017
Hierarchical Chemical Bonds Contributing to the Intrinsically Low Thermal Conductivity in α-MgAgSb Thermoelectric Materials journal October 2016
Interstitial Defects Improving Thermoelectric SnTe in Addition to Band Convergence journal February 2017
Realizing the High Thermoelectric Performance of GeTe by Sb-Doping and Se-Alloying journal December 2016
High-Thermoelectric Performance of Nanostructured Bismuth Antimony Telluride Bulk Alloys journal May 2008
Copper ion liquid-like thermoelectrics journal March 2012
Boosting the thermoelectric performance of PbSe through dynamic doping and hierarchical phonon scattering journal January 2018
New Insight on Tuning Electrical Transport Properties via Chalcogen Doping in n-type Mg 3 Sb 2 -Based Thermoelectric Materials journal February 2018
Thermoelectric SnTe with Band Convergence, Dense Dislocations, and Interstitials through Sn Self-Compensation and Mn Alloying journal August 2018
Grain boundary dominated charge transport in Mg 3 Sb 2 -based compounds journal January 2018
Point Defect Engineering of High-Performance Bismuth-Telluride-Based Thermoelectric Materials journal June 2014

Figures / Tables (5)


Similar Records

Electrical and thermoelectric properties of 90% Bi{sub 2}Te{sub 3}-5% Sb{sub 2}Te{sub 3}-5% Sb{sub 2}Se{sub 3} single crystals doped with SbI{sub 3}
Journal Article · Fri Dec 04 00:00:00 EST 1998 · Scripta Materialia · OSTI ID:1560221

Melt-Centrifuged (Bi,Sb)2Te3: Engineering Microstructure toward High Thermoelectric Efficiency
Journal Article · Sun Jul 08 00:00:00 EDT 2018 · Advanced Materials · OSTI ID:1560221

Thermoelectric properties of the hot-pressed (Bi,Sb){sub 2}(Te,Se){sub 3} alloys
Journal Article · Sat Apr 01 00:00:00 EST 2000 · Scripta Materialia · OSTI ID:1560221

Related Subjects