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Title: High Thermoelectric Performance in Supersaturated Solid Solutions and Nanostructured n-Type PbTe-GeTe

Journal Article · · Advanced Functional Materials
 [1];  [2];  [2];  [2];  [3];  [4];  [3];  [2];  [2];  [5]; ORCiD logo [2]
  1. Nanyang Technological Univ. (Singapore); Northwestern Univ., Evanston, IL (United States)
  2. Northwestern Univ., Evanston, IL (United States)
  3. Univ. of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI (United States)
  4. A*STAR (Agency for Science, Technology and Research), Innovis (Singapore)
  5. Nanyang Technological Univ. (Singapore)

Abstract Sb‐doped and GeTe‐alloyed n‐type thermoelectric materials that show an excellent figure of merit ZT in the intermediate temperature range (400–800 K) are reported. The synergistic effect of favorable changes to the band structure resulting in high Seebeck coefficient and enhanced phonon scattering by point defects and nanoscale precipitates resulting in reduction of thermal conductivity are demonstrated. The samples can be tuned as single‐phase solid solution (SS) or two‐phase system with nanoscale precipitates (Nano) based on the annealing processes. The GeTe alloying results in band structure modification by widening the bandgap and increasing the density‐of‐states effective mass of PbTe, resulting in significantly enhanced Seebeck coefficients. The nanoscale precipitates can improve the power factor in the low temperature range and further reduce the lattice thermal conductivity (κ lat ). Specifically, the Seebeck coefficient of Pb 0.988 Sb 0.012 Te–13%GeTe–Nano approaches −280 µV K −1 at 673 K with a low κ lat of 0.56 W m −1 K −1 at 573 K. Consequently, a peak ZT value of 1.38 is achieved at 623 K. Moreover, a high average ZT avg value of ≈1.04 is obtained in the temperature range from 300 to 773 K for n‐type Pb 0.988 Sb 0.012 Te–13%GeTe–Nano.

Research Organization:
Northwestern Univ., Evanston, IL (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES); National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC); Singapore MOE AcRF Tier 1; Singapore A*STAR Pharos Program; Nanyang Technological Univ.; National Science Foundation (NSF); International Institute for Nanotechnology; Keck Foundation; State of Illinois
Grant/Contract Number:
SC0014520; 61728401; RG 113/15, 2016-T1-002-065; SERC1527200022; ECCS-1542205; DMR-1121262; DE‐SC0014520; DE‐AC02‐06CH11357; DE‐AC02‐05CH11231
OSTI ID:
1775351
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 1440785
Journal Information:
Advanced Functional Materials, Vol. 28, Issue 31; ISSN 1616-301X
Publisher:
WileyCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 85 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

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Anisotropy of Selected Mechanical Properties of PbTe journal February 2019
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Achieving high thermoelectric performance through constructing coherent interfaces and building interface potential barriers in n-type Bi 2 Te 3 /Bi 2 Te 2.7 Se 0.3 nanocomposites journal January 2019
Amphoteric Indium Enables Carrier Engineering to Enhance the Power Factor and Thermoelectric Performance in n ‐Type Ag n Pb 100 In n Te 100+2 n (LIST) journal March 2019
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Multifunctional inorganic nanomaterials for energy applications journal January 2020
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