DOE PAGES title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: Studies on the Bi2Te3–Bi2Se3–Bi2S3 system for mid-temperature thermoelectric energy conversion

Abstract

Bismuth telluride (Bi2Te3) and its alloys have been widely investigated as thermoelectric materials for cooling applications at around room temperature. We report here a systematic study on many compounds in the Bi2Te3–Bi2Se3–Bi2S3 system. All the samples were fabricated by high energy ball milling followed by hot pressing. Among the investigated compounds, Bi2Te2S1 shows a peak ZT ~0.8 at 300 °C and Bi2Se1S2 ~0.8 at 500 °C. The results show that these compounds can be used for mid-temperature power generation applications. The leg efficiency of thermoelectric conversion for segmented elements based on these n-type materials could potentially reach 12.5% with a cold side at 25 °C and a hot side at 500 °C if appropriate p-type legs are paired, which could compete well with the state-of-the-art n-type materials within the same temperature range, including lead tellurides, lead selenides, lead sulfides, filled-skutterudites, and half Heuslers.

Authors:
 [1];  [1];  [2];  [2];  [1];  [1];  [2];  [1]
  1. Boston College, Chestnut Hill, MA (United States). Dept. of Physics
  2. Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (United States). Dept. of Mechanical Engineering
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES)
OSTI Identifier:
1381942
Grant/Contract Number:  
SC0001299; FG02-09ER46577
Resource Type:
Accepted Manuscript
Journal Name:
Energy & Environmental Science
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Volume: 6; Journal Issue: 2; Journal ID: ISSN 1754-5692
Publisher:
Royal Society of Chemistry
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
36 MATERIALS SCIENCE; 30 DIRECT ENERGY CONVERSION

Citation Formats

Liu, Weishu, Lukas, Kevin C., McEnaney, Kenneth, Lee, Sangyeop, Zhang, Qian, Opeil, Cyril P., Chen, Gang, and Ren, Zhifeng. Studies on the Bi2Te3–Bi2Se3–Bi2S3 system for mid-temperature thermoelectric energy conversion. United States: N. p., 2012. Web. doi:10.1039/C2EE23549H.
Liu, Weishu, Lukas, Kevin C., McEnaney, Kenneth, Lee, Sangyeop, Zhang, Qian, Opeil, Cyril P., Chen, Gang, & Ren, Zhifeng. Studies on the Bi2Te3–Bi2Se3–Bi2S3 system for mid-temperature thermoelectric energy conversion. United States. https://doi.org/10.1039/C2EE23549H
Liu, Weishu, Lukas, Kevin C., McEnaney, Kenneth, Lee, Sangyeop, Zhang, Qian, Opeil, Cyril P., Chen, Gang, and Ren, Zhifeng. Thu . "Studies on the Bi2Te3–Bi2Se3–Bi2S3 system for mid-temperature thermoelectric energy conversion". United States. https://doi.org/10.1039/C2EE23549H. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1381942.
@article{osti_1381942,
title = {Studies on the Bi2Te3–Bi2Se3–Bi2S3 system for mid-temperature thermoelectric energy conversion},
author = {Liu, Weishu and Lukas, Kevin C. and McEnaney, Kenneth and Lee, Sangyeop and Zhang, Qian and Opeil, Cyril P. and Chen, Gang and Ren, Zhifeng},
abstractNote = {Bismuth telluride (Bi2Te3) and its alloys have been widely investigated as thermoelectric materials for cooling applications at around room temperature. We report here a systematic study on many compounds in the Bi2Te3–Bi2Se3–Bi2S3 system. All the samples were fabricated by high energy ball milling followed by hot pressing. Among the investigated compounds, Bi2Te2S1 shows a peak ZT ~0.8 at 300 °C and Bi2Se1S2 ~0.8 at 500 °C. The results show that these compounds can be used for mid-temperature power generation applications. The leg efficiency of thermoelectric conversion for segmented elements based on these n-type materials could potentially reach 12.5% with a cold side at 25 °C and a hot side at 500 °C if appropriate p-type legs are paired, which could compete well with the state-of-the-art n-type materials within the same temperature range, including lead tellurides, lead selenides, lead sulfides, filled-skutterudites, and half Heuslers.},
doi = {10.1039/C2EE23549H},
journal = {Energy & Environmental Science},
number = 2,
volume = 6,
place = {United States},
year = {Thu Nov 22 00:00:00 EST 2012},
month = {Thu Nov 22 00:00:00 EST 2012}
}

Journal Article:
Free Publicly Available Full Text
Publisher's Version of Record

Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 226 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

Save / Share:

Works referenced in this record:

High-performance flat-panel solar thermoelectric generators with high thermal concentration
journal, May 2011

  • Kraemer, Daniel; Poudel, Bed; Feng, Hsien-Ping
  • Nature Materials, Vol. 10, Issue 7, p. 532-538
  • DOI: 10.1038/nmat3013

Improvement of Thermoelectric Performance of CoSb 3− x Te x Skutterudite Compounds by Additional Substitution of IVB-Group Elements for Sb
journal, December 2008

  • Liu, Wei-Shu; Zhang, Bo-Ping; Zhao, Li-Dong
  • Chemistry of Materials, Vol. 20, Issue 24
  • DOI: 10.1021/cm802367f

Thermoelectric Property Studies on Cu-Doped n-type CuxBi2Te2.7Se0.3 Nanocomposites
journal, June 2011

  • Liu, Wei-Shu; Zhang, Qinyong; Lan, Yucheng
  • Advanced Energy Materials, Vol. 1, Issue 4, p. 577-587
  • DOI: 10.1002/aenm.201100149

Lattice Thermal Conductivity of Disordered Semiconductor Alloys at High Temperatures
journal, September 1963


Multiple-Filled Skutterudites: High Thermoelectric Figure of Merit through Separately Optimizing Electrical and Thermal Transports
journal, May 2011

  • Shi, Xun; Yang, Jiong; Salvador, James R.
  • Journal of the American Chemical Society, Vol. 133, Issue 20
  • DOI: 10.1021/ja111199y

Inhomogeneous thermoelectrics
journal, October 1991

  • Mahan, G. D.
  • Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 70, Issue 8
  • DOI: 10.1063/1.349091

Convergence of electronic bands for high performance bulk thermoelectrics
journal, May 2011

  • Pei, Yanzhong; Shi, Xiaoya; LaLonde, Aaron
  • Nature, Vol. 473, Issue 7345, p. 66-69
  • DOI: 10.1038/nature09996

Experimental Studies on Anisotropic Thermoelectric Properties and Structures of n-Type Bi2Te2.7Se0.3
journal, September 2010

  • Yan, Xiao; Poudel, Bed; Ma, Yi
  • Nano Letters, Vol. 10, Issue 9, p. 3373-3378
  • DOI: 10.1021/nl101156v

High Thermoelectric Performance in PbTe Due to Large Nanoscale Ag2Te Precipitates and La Doping
journal, November 2010

  • Pei, Yanzhong; Lensch-Falk, Jessica; Toberer, Eric S.
  • Advanced Functional Materials, Vol. 21, Issue 2
  • DOI: 10.1002/adfm.201000878

Identifying the Specific Nanostructures Responsible for the High Thermoelectric Performance of (Bi,Sb) 2 Te 3 Nanocomposites
journal, September 2010

  • Xie, Wenjie; He, Jian; Kang, Hye Jung
  • Nano Letters, Vol. 10, Issue 9
  • DOI: 10.1021/nl100804a

Tellurium-Free Thermoelectric: The Anisotropic n-Type Semiconductor Bi2S3
journal, March 2012

  • Biswas, Kanishka; Zhao, Li-Dong; Kanatzidis, Mercouri G.
  • Advanced Energy Materials, Vol. 2, Issue 6
  • DOI: 10.1002/aenm.201100775

Thermoelectric properties of the hot-pressed (Bi,Sb)2(Te,Se)3 alloys
journal, April 2000


Effects of Heavy Deformation and Annealing on the Electrical Properties of Bi 2 Te 3
journal, August 1962

  • Schultz, J. M.; McHugh, J. P.; Tiller, W. A.
  • Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 33, Issue 8
  • DOI: 10.1063/1.1728990

Thermoelectric properties and structural variations in Bi 2 Te 3−x S x crystals
journal, February 2012

  • Wong-Ng, W.; Joress, H.; Martin, J.
  • Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 100, Issue 8
  • DOI: 10.1063/1.3688485

Enhanced thermoelectric properties of bismuth sulfide polycrystals prepared by mechanical alloying and spark plasma sintering
journal, December 2008

  • Zhao, Li-Dong; Zhang, Bo-Ping; Liu, Wei-Shu
  • Journal of Solid State Chemistry, Vol. 181, Issue 12
  • DOI: 10.1016/j.jssc.2008.08.022

Recent Studies of Bismuth Telluride and Its Alloys
journal, October 1961

  • Goldsmid, H. J.
  • Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 32, Issue 10
  • DOI: 10.1063/1.1777042

Enhanced thermoelectric and mechanical properties in textured n-type Bi2Te3 prepared by spark plasma sintering
journal, May 2008


Effect of spark plasma sintering temperature on thermoelectric properties of Bi 2 S 3 polycrystal
journal, October 2011

  • Ge, Zhen-Hua; Zhang, Bo-Ping; Yu, Zhao-Xin
  • Journal of Materials Research, Vol. 26, Issue 21
  • DOI: 10.1557/jmr.2011.273

MINERALS OF THE SYSTEM Bi Te Se S RELATED TO THE TETRADYMITE ARCHETYPE: REVIEW OF CLASSIFICATION AND COMPOSITIONAL VARIATION
journal, August 2007


Lattice point defects and free-carrier concentration in Bi2+xTe3 and Bi2+xSe3 crystals
journal, August 1992


Effect of Point Imperfections on Lattice Thermal Conductivity
journal, November 1960


Enhancement in Thermoelectric Figure-Of-Merit of an N-Type Half-Heusler Compound by the Nanocomposite Approach
journal, May 2011

  • Joshi, Giri; Yan, Xiao; Wang, Hengzhi
  • Advanced Energy Materials, Vol. 1, Issue 4, p. 643-647
  • DOI: 10.1002/aenm.201100126

Thermoelectric properties of p-type pseudo-binary (Ag0.365Sb0.558Te)x–(Bi0.5Sb1.5Te3)1−x (x=0–1.0) alloys prepared by spark plasma sintering
journal, December 2006


Recent advances in thermoelectric nanocomposites
journal, January 2012


Enhancement of thermoelectric figure-of-merit by resonant states of aluminium doping in lead selenide
journal, January 2012

  • Zhang, Qinyong; Wang, Hui; Liu, Weishu
  • Energy Environ. Sci., Vol. 5, Issue 1, p. 5246-5251
  • DOI: 10.1039/C1EE02465E

Chemical bonding in bismuth telluride
journal, January 1958


Strained endotaxial nanostructures with high thermoelectric figure of merit
journal, January 2011

  • Biswas, Kanishka; He, Jiaqing; Zhang, Qichun
  • Nature Chemistry, Vol. 3, Issue 2
  • DOI: 10.1038/nchem.955

Effect of mixed grain sizes on thermoelectric performance of Bi2Te3 compound
journal, January 2009

  • Zhao, Li-Dong; Zhang, Bo-Ping; Liu, Wei-Shu
  • Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 105, Issue 2
  • DOI: 10.1063/1.3063694

Thermoelectric properties of textured p-type (Bi,Sb)2Te3 fabricated by spark plasma sintering
journal, March 2005


Heavy Doping and Band Engineering by Potassium to Improve the Thermoelectric Figure of Merit in p-Type PbTe, PbSe, and PbTe 1– y Se y
journal, June 2012

  • Zhang, Qian; Cao, Feng; Liu, Weishu
  • Journal of the American Chemical Society, Vol. 134, Issue 24
  • DOI: 10.1021/ja301245b

High Performance Thermoelectrics from Earth-Abundant Materials: Enhanced Figure of Merit in PbS by Second Phase Nanostructures
journal, December 2011

  • Zhao, Li-Dong; Lo, Shih-Han; He, Jiaqing
  • Journal of the American Chemical Society, Vol. 133, Issue 50
  • DOI: 10.1021/ja208658w

Enhanced thermoelectric properties in CoSb3-xTex alloys prepared by mechanical alloying and spark plasma sintering
journal, November 2007

  • Liu, Wei-Shu; Zhang, Bo-Ping; Li, Jing-Feng
  • Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 102, Issue 10
  • DOI: 10.1063/1.2815671

Introduction to Thermoelectricity
book, January 2010


Bismuth telluride nanotubes and the effects on the thermoelectric properties of nanotube-containing nanocomposites
journal, February 2005

  • Zhao, X. B.; Ji, X. H.; Zhang, Y. H.
  • Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 86, Issue 6
  • DOI: 10.1063/1.1863440

Modeling of concentrating solar thermoelectric generators
journal, October 2011

  • McEnaney, Kenneth; Kraemer, Daniel; Ren, Zhifeng
  • Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 110, Issue 7
  • DOI: 10.1063/1.3642988

Figure of merit for thermoelectrics
journal, February 1989

  • Mahan, G. D.
  • Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 65, Issue 4
  • DOI: 10.1063/1.342976

High-Thermoelectric Performance of Nanostructured Bismuth Antimony Telluride Bulk Alloys
journal, May 2008


High-performance nanostructured thermoelectric materials
journal, October 2010


Nanostructured Bi2−xCuxS3 bulk materials with enhanced thermoelectric performance
journal, January 2012

  • Ge, Zhen-Hua; Zhang, Bo-Ping; Liu, Yong
  • Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics, Vol. 14, Issue 13
  • DOI: 10.1039/c2cp23955h

Multiple-Filled Skutterudites: High Thermoelectric Figure of Merit through Separately Optimizing Electrical and Thermal Transports
journal, January 2012

  • Shi, Xun; Yang, Jiong; Salvador, James R.
  • Journal of the American Chemical Society, Vol. 134, Issue 5
  • DOI: 10.1021/ja211185w

Introduction to Thermoelectricity
book, January 2016


Works referencing / citing this record:

Understanding Bulk Defects in Topological Insulators from Nuclear-Spin Interactions
journal, December 2013

  • Koumoulis, Dimitrios; Leung, Belinda; Chasapis, Thomas C.
  • Advanced Functional Materials, Vol. 24, Issue 11
  • DOI: 10.1002/adfm.201302673

Eco-Friendly SnTe Thermoelectric Materials: Progress and Future Challenges
journal, September 2017

  • Moshwan, Raza; Yang, Lei; Zou, Jin
  • Advanced Functional Materials, Vol. 27, Issue 43
  • DOI: 10.1002/adfm.201703278

Synergistic Compositional-Mechanical-Thermal Effects Leading to a Record High zT in n-Type V 2 VI 3 Alloys Through Progressive Hot Deformation
journal, July 2018

  • Hu, Lipeng; Zhang, Yang; Wu, Haijun
  • Advanced Functional Materials, Vol. 28, Issue 35
  • DOI: 10.1002/adfm.201803617

Chalcogenide Thermoelectrics Empowered by an Unconventional Bonding Mechanism
journal, August 2019

  • Yu, Yuan; Cagnoni, Matteo; Cojocaru‐Mirédin, Oana
  • Advanced Functional Materials
  • DOI: 10.1002/adfm.201904862

Woven-Yarn Thermoelectric Textiles
journal, April 2016

  • Lee, Jae Ah; Aliev, Ali E.; Bykova, Julia S.
  • Advanced Materials, Vol. 28, Issue 25
  • DOI: 10.1002/adma.201600709

Bendable n-Type Metallic Nanocomposites with Large Thermoelectric Power Factor
journal, November 2016


Entropy as a Gene-Like Performance Indicator Promoting Thermoelectric Materials
journal, August 2017


Are Cu 2 Te‐Based Compounds Excellent Thermoelectric Materials?
journal, October 2019


Processing Optimization and Property Predictions of Hot‐Extruded Bi–Te–Se Thermoelectric Materials via Machine Learning
journal, November 2019

  • Wang, Zhi‐Lei; Adachi, Yoshitaka; Chen, Zhong‐Chun
  • Advanced Theory and Simulations, Vol. 3, Issue 1
  • DOI: 10.1002/adts.201900197

New Insights into Intrinsic Point Defects in V 2 VI 3 Thermoelectric Materials
journal, March 2016


The Thermoelectric Properties of Bismuth Telluride
journal, April 2019

  • Witting, Ian T.; Chasapis, Thomas C.; Ricci, Francesco
  • Advanced Electronic Materials, Vol. 5, Issue 6
  • DOI: 10.1002/aelm.201800904

Enhancement of Thermoelectric Performance of n-Type PbSe by Cr Doping with Optimized Carrier Concentration
journal, January 2015

  • Zhang, Qian; Chere, Eyob Kebede; McEnaney, Kenneth
  • Advanced Energy Materials, Vol. 5, Issue 8
  • DOI: 10.1002/aenm.201401977

Eco-Friendly Higher Manganese Silicide Thermoelectric Materials: Progress and Future Challenges
journal, April 2018

  • Liu, Wei-Di; Chen, Zhi-Gang; Zou, Jin
  • Advanced Energy Materials, Vol. 8, Issue 19
  • DOI: 10.1002/aenm.201800056

Galvanic exchange reaction involving Te nanowires and Ag ions for n-type Te/Ag2Te thermoelectric nanofilms
journal, June 2019


Attaining high mid-temperature performance in (Bi,Sb)2Te3 thermoelectric materials via synergistic optimization
journal, September 2016

  • Xu, Zhaojun; Wu, Haijun; Zhu, Tiejun
  • NPG Asia Materials, Vol. 8, Issue 9
  • DOI: 10.1038/am.2016.134

High-performance shape-engineerable thermoelectric painting
journal, November 2016

  • Park, Sung Hoon; Jo, Seungki; Kwon, Beomjin
  • Nature Communications, Vol. 7, Issue 1
  • DOI: 10.1038/ncomms13403

Ultra-high performance wearable thermoelectric coolers with less materials
journal, April 2019


3D printing of shape-conformable thermoelectric materials using all-inorganic Bi2Te3-based inks
journal, January 2018


Texturation boosts the thermoelectric performance of BiCuSeO oxyselenides
journal, January 2013

  • Sui, Jiehe; Li, Jing; He, Jiaqing
  • Energy & Environmental Science, Vol. 6, Issue 10
  • DOI: 10.1039/c3ee41859f

Understanding of the contact of nanostructured thermoelectric n-type Bi2Te2.7Se0.3 legs for power generation applications
journal, January 2013

  • Liu, Weishu; Wang, Hengzhi; Wang, Lijuan
  • Journal of Materials Chemistry A, Vol. 1, Issue 42
  • DOI: 10.1039/c3ta13456c

In-doped Bi2Se3 hierarchical nanostructures as anode materials for Li-ion batteries
journal, January 2014

  • Han, Guang; Chen, Zhi-Gang; Ye, Delai
  • Journal of Materials Chemistry A, Vol. 2, Issue 19
  • DOI: 10.1039/c4ta00045e

The effect of nickel doping on electron and phonon transport in the n-type nanostructured thermoelectric material CoSbS
journal, January 2015

  • Liu, Zihang; Geng, Huiyuan; Shuai, Jing
  • Journal of Materials Chemistry C, Vol. 3, Issue 40
  • DOI: 10.1039/c5tc01560j

Suppressed intrinsic excitation and enhanced thermoelectric performance in Ag x Bi 0.5 Sb 1.5−x Te 3
journal, January 2017

  • Xing, Tong; Liu, Ruiheng; Hao, Feng
  • Journal of Materials Chemistry C, Vol. 5, Issue 47
  • DOI: 10.1039/c7tc04573e

Pulsed-light surface annealing for low contact resistance interfaces between metal electrodes and bismuth telluride thermoelectric materials
journal, January 2019

  • Joshi, Giri; Mitchell, Dan; Ruedin, Josh
  • Journal of Materials Chemistry C, Vol. 7, Issue 3
  • DOI: 10.1039/c8tc03147a

Seeing atomic-scale structural origins and foreseeing new pathways to improved thermoelectric materials
journal, January 2019

  • Wu, Haijun; Zhang, Yang; Ning, Shoucong
  • Materials Horizons, Vol. 6, Issue 8
  • DOI: 10.1039/c9mh00543a

Enhanced thermoelectric properties of Bi 2 S 3 polycrystals through an electroless nickel plating process
journal, January 2019

  • Chang, Yi; Yang, Qiong-Lian; Guo, Jun
  • RSC Advances, Vol. 9, Issue 40
  • DOI: 10.1039/c9ra04653d

Anion-exchange synthesis of thermoelectric layered SnS 0.1 Se 0.9−x Te x nano/microstructures in aqueous solution: complexity and carrier concentration
journal, January 2019

  • Huang, Lisi; Han, Guang; Zhang, Bin
  • Journal of Materials Chemistry C, Vol. 7, Issue 25
  • DOI: 10.1039/c9tc01994d

Band gap estimation from temperature dependent Seebeck measurement—Deviations from the 2e|S|maxTmax relation
journal, January 2015

  • Gibbs, Zachary M.; Kim, Hyun-Sik; Wang, Heng
  • Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 106, Issue 2
  • DOI: 10.1063/1.4905922

n-type thermoelectric material Mg 2 Sn 0.75 Ge 0.25 for high power generation
journal, March 2015

  • Liu, Weishu; Kim, Hee Seok; Chen, Shuo
  • Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Vol. 112, Issue 11
  • DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1424388112

Relationship between thermoelectric figure of merit and energy conversion efficiency
journal, June 2015

  • Kim, Hee Seok; Liu, Weishu; Chen, Gang
  • Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Vol. 112, Issue 27
  • DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1510231112

Thermoelectric properties of Co 4 Sb 12 with Bi 2 Te 3 nanoinclusions
journal, February 2018

  • Ghosh, Sanyukta; Bisht, Anuj; Karati, Anirudha
  • Journal of Physics: Condensed Matter, Vol. 30, Issue 9
  • DOI: 10.1088/1361-648x/aaa5ea

Flexible n-type thermoelectric composite films with enhanced performance through interface engineering and post-treatment
journal, May 2018


Superior performance and high service stability for GeTe-based thermoelectric compounds
journal, April 2019

  • Xing, Tong; Song, Qingfeng; Qiu, Pengfei
  • National Science Review, Vol. 6, Issue 5
  • DOI: 10.1093/nsr/nwz052

Reduced Bipolar Conduction in Bandgap-Engineered n-Type Cu0.008Bi2(Te,Se)3 by Sulfur Doping
journal, January 2020

  • Shin, Weon Ho; Kim, Hyun-Sik; Kim, Se Yun
  • Energies, Vol. 13, Issue 2
  • DOI: 10.3390/en13020337

Chalcogenide Thermoelectrics Empowered by an Unconventional Bonding Mechanism
text, January 2019


BiCuSeO oxyselenides: new promising thermoelectric materials [BiCuSeO оксиселенид - жаңа келешегi жоғары термоэлектрлiк материал ретiнде]
journal, January 2019