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Origin of inhomogeneity in spark plasma sintered bismuth antimony telluride thermoelectric nanocomposites

Journal Article · · Nano Research
 [1];  [2];  [3];  [1];  [4];  [1];  [1];  [5];  [4];  [3];  [6];  [1]
  1. Iowa State Univ., Ames, IA (United States)
  2. National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
  3. Univ. of Notre Dame, IN (United States)
  4. Northwestern Univ., Evanston, IL (United States)
  5. Univ. of Cincinnati, OH (United States)
  6. Univ. of California, San Diego, CA (United States)
+ Show Author Affiliations

Anisotropy and inhomogeneity are ubiquitous in spark plasma sintered thermoelectric devices. However, the origin of inhomogeneity in thermoelectric nanocomposites has rarely been investigated so far. Herein, we systematically study the impact of inhomogeneity in spark plasma sintered bismuth antimony telluride (BiSbTe) thermoelectric nanocomposites fabricated from solution-synthesized nanoplates. The figure of merit can reach 1.18, which, however, can be overestimated to 1.88 without considering the inhomogeneity. Our study reveals that the inhomogeneity in thermoelectric properties is attributed to the non-uniformity of porosity, textures and elemental distribution from electron backscatter diffraction and energy-dispersive spectroscopy characterizations. This finding suggests that the optimization of bulk material homogeneity should also be actively pursued in any future thermoelectric material research.

Research Organization:
National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC36-08GO28308
OSTI ID:
1593688
Report Number(s):
NREL/JA-5500-75854; MainId:21889; UUID:c694af05-7d38-ea11-9c2f-ac162d87dfe5; MainAdminID:10365
Journal Information:
Nano Research, Journal Name: Nano Research Journal Issue: 5 Vol. 13; ISSN 1998-0124
Publisher:
SpringerCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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Related Subjects

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
77 NANOSCIENCE AND NANOTECHNOLOGY
bismuth antimony telluride
inhomogeneity
solution synthesis
thermoelectrics