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

Title: High thermoelectric power factor in two-dimensional crystals of Mo S 2

Abstract

The quest for high-efficiency heat-to-electricity conversion has been one of the major driving forces toward renewable energy production for the future. Efficient thermoelectric devices require high voltage generation from a temperature gradient and a large electrical conductivity while maintaining a low thermal conductivity. For a given thermal conductivity and temperature, the thermoelectric power factor is determined by the electronic structure of the material. Low dimensionality (1D and 2D) opens new routes to a high power factor due to the unique density of states (DOS) of confined electrons and holes. The 2D transition metal dichalcogenide (TMDC) semiconductors represent a new class of thermoelectric materials not only due to such confinement effects but especially due to their large effective masses and valley degeneracies. Here, we report a power factor of MoS2 as large as 8.5 mW m–1 K–2 at room temperature, which is among the highest measured in traditional, gapped thermoelectric materials. To obtain these high power factors, we perform thermoelectric measurements on few-layer MoS2 in the metallic regime, which allows us to access the 2D DOS near the conduction band edge and exploit the effect of 2D confinement on electron scattering rates, resulting in a large Seebeck coefficient. We conclude themore » demonstrated high, electronically modulated power factor in 2D TMDCs holds promise for efficient thermoelectric energy conversion.« less

Authors:
 [1];  [2];  [2];  [3];  [2];  [4];  [3];  [3];  [4]
  1. Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States). National Science Foundation (NSF) Nanoscale Science and Engineering Center; Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States); Agency for Science Technology and Research (Singapore). Inst. of Materials Research and Engineering
  2. Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States). National Science Foundation (NSF) Nanoscale Science and Engineering Center
  3. Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States); Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States). Dept. of Physics
  4. Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States). National Science Foundation (NSF) Nanoscale Science and Engineering Center; Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Energy Frontier Research Centers (EFRC) (United States). Light-Material Interactions in Energy Conversion (LMI)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES); National Science Foundation (NSF); Science and Engineering Research Council (SERC) (Singapore)
OSTI Identifier:
1388292
Alternate Identifier(s):
OSTI ID: 1345686
Grant/Contract Number:  
SC0001293; AC02-05CH11231; DMR-1508412; 152-72-00018
Resource Type:
Accepted Manuscript
Journal Name:
Physical Review B
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Volume: 95; Journal Issue: 11; Related Information: LMI partners with California Institute of Technology (lead); Harvard University; University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign; Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory; Journal ID: ISSN 2469-9950
Publisher:
American Physical Society (APS)
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND SUPERFLUIDITY; 36 MATERIALS SCIENCE; solar (photovoltaic); solid state lighting; phonons; thermal conductivity; electrodes - solar; materials and chemistry by design; optics; synthesis (novel materials); synthesis (self-assembly)

Citation Formats

Hippalgaonkar, Kedar, Wang, Ying, Ye, Yu, Qiu, Diana Y., Zhu, Hanyu, Wang, Yuan, Moore, Joel, Louie, Steven G., and Zhang, Xiang. High thermoelectric power factor in two-dimensional crystals of MoS2. United States: N. p., 2017. Web. doi:10.1103/PhysRevB.95.115407.
Hippalgaonkar, Kedar, Wang, Ying, Ye, Yu, Qiu, Diana Y., Zhu, Hanyu, Wang, Yuan, Moore, Joel, Louie, Steven G., & Zhang, Xiang. High thermoelectric power factor in two-dimensional crystals of MoS2. United States. https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.95.115407
Hippalgaonkar, Kedar, Wang, Ying, Ye, Yu, Qiu, Diana Y., Zhu, Hanyu, Wang, Yuan, Moore, Joel, Louie, Steven G., and Zhang, Xiang. Fri . "High thermoelectric power factor in two-dimensional crystals of MoS2". United States. https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.95.115407. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1388292.
@article{osti_1388292,
title = {High thermoelectric power factor in two-dimensional crystals of MoS2},
author = {Hippalgaonkar, Kedar and Wang, Ying and Ye, Yu and Qiu, Diana Y. and Zhu, Hanyu and Wang, Yuan and Moore, Joel and Louie, Steven G. and Zhang, Xiang},
abstractNote = {The quest for high-efficiency heat-to-electricity conversion has been one of the major driving forces toward renewable energy production for the future. Efficient thermoelectric devices require high voltage generation from a temperature gradient and a large electrical conductivity while maintaining a low thermal conductivity. For a given thermal conductivity and temperature, the thermoelectric power factor is determined by the electronic structure of the material. Low dimensionality (1D and 2D) opens new routes to a high power factor due to the unique density of states (DOS) of confined electrons and holes. The 2D transition metal dichalcogenide (TMDC) semiconductors represent a new class of thermoelectric materials not only due to such confinement effects but especially due to their large effective masses and valley degeneracies. Here, we report a power factor of MoS2 as large as 8.5 mW m–1 K–2 at room temperature, which is among the highest measured in traditional, gapped thermoelectric materials. To obtain these high power factors, we perform thermoelectric measurements on few-layer MoS2 in the metallic regime, which allows us to access the 2D DOS near the conduction band edge and exploit the effect of 2D confinement on electron scattering rates, resulting in a large Seebeck coefficient. We conclude the demonstrated high, electronically modulated power factor in 2D TMDCs holds promise for efficient thermoelectric energy conversion.},
doi = {10.1103/PhysRevB.95.115407},
journal = {Physical Review B},
number = 11,
volume = 95,
place = {United States},
year = {Fri Mar 03 00:00:00 EST 2017},
month = {Fri Mar 03 00:00:00 EST 2017}
}

Journal Article:

Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 169 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

Save / Share:

Works referenced in this record:

Large and Tunable Photothermoelectric Effect in Single-Layer MoS 2
journal, January 2013

  • Buscema, Michele; Barkelid, Maria; Zwiller, Val
  • Nano Letters, Vol. 13, Issue 2
  • DOI: 10.1021/nl303321g

The accurate numerical evaluation of half-order Fermi-Dirac Integrals
journal, April 1995


Enhanced Thermoelectric Power in Graphene: Violation of the Mott Relation by Inelastic Scattering
journal, March 2016


Emerging Photoluminescence in Monolayer MoS2
journal, April 2010

  • Splendiani, Andrea; Sun, Liang; Zhang, Yuanbo
  • Nano Letters, Vol. 10, Issue 4, p. 1271-1275
  • DOI: 10.1021/nl903868w

Complex thermoelectric materials
journal, February 2008

  • Snyder, G. Jeffrey; Toberer, Eric S.
  • Nature Materials, Vol. 7, Issue 2, p. 105-114
  • DOI: 10.1038/nmat2090

Intrinsic electrical transport properties of monolayer silicene and MoS 2 from first principles
journal, March 2013


Thermoelectrics Handbook: Macro to Nano
book, January 2017


Intrinsic Electronic Transport Properties of High-Quality Monolayer and Bilayer MoS 2
journal, August 2013

  • Baugher, Britton W. H.; Churchill, Hugh O. H.; Yang, Yafang
  • Nano Letters, Vol. 13, Issue 9
  • DOI: 10.1021/nl401916s

Electronic transport and device prospects of monolayer molybdenum disulphide grown by chemical vapour deposition
journal, January 2014

  • Zhu, Wenjuan; Low, Tony; Lee, Yi-Hsien
  • Nature Communications, Vol. 5, Issue 1
  • DOI: 10.1038/ncomms4087

Electron correlation in semiconductors and insulators: Band gaps and quasiparticle energies
journal, October 1986


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

Enhancement of Thermoelectric Efficiency in PbTe by Distortion of the Electronic Density of States
journal, July 2008

  • Heremans, J. P.; Jovovic, V.; Toberer, E. S.
  • Science, Vol. 321, Issue 5888, p. 554-557
  • DOI: 10.1126/science.1159725

On the Theory of Hopping Transport in Disordered Semiconductors
journal, August 1973


Optical Spectrum of MoS 2 : Many-Body Effects and Diversity of Exciton States
journal, November 2013


Mobility engineering and a metal–insulator transition in monolayer MoS2
journal, June 2013

  • Radisavljevic, Branimir; Kis, Andras
  • Nature Materials, Vol. 12, Issue 9
  • DOI: 10.1038/nmat3687

Large Thermoelectricity via Variable Range Hopping in Chemical Vapor Deposition Grown Single-Layer MoS 2
journal, April 2014

  • Wu, Jing; Schmidt, Hennrik; Amara, Kiran Kumar
  • Nano Letters, Vol. 14, Issue 5
  • DOI: 10.1021/nl500666m

Theoretical study of thermoelectric properties of few-layer MoS2 and WSe2
journal, January 2014

  • Huang, Wen; Luo, Xin; Gan, Chee Kwan
  • Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics, Vol. 16, Issue 22
  • DOI: 10.1039/c4cp00487f

Electrical Transport Properties of Single-Layer WS 2
journal, July 2014

  • Ovchinnikov, Dmitry; Allain, Adrien; Huang, Ying-Sheng
  • ACS Nano, Vol. 8, Issue 8
  • DOI: 10.1021/nn502362b

High-mobility and low-power thin-film transistors based on multilayer MoS2 crystals
journal, January 2012

  • Kim, Sunkook; Konar, Aniruddha; Hwang, Wan-Sik
  • Nature Communications, Vol. 3, Issue 1
  • DOI: 10.1038/ncomms2018

The electronic properties of graphene
journal, January 2009

  • Castro Neto, A. H.; Guinea, F.; Peres, N. M. R.
  • Reviews of Modern Physics, Vol. 81, Issue 1, p. 109-162
  • DOI: 10.1103/RevModPhys.81.109

Large Seebeck coefficients and thermoelectric power factor of La-doped SrTiO3 thin films
journal, July 2010

  • Jalan, Bharat; Stemmer, Susanne
  • Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 97, Issue 4
  • DOI: 10.1063/1.3471398

Effects of confinement and environment on the electronic structure and exciton binding energy of MoS 2 from first principles
journal, December 2012


Valley-selective circular dichroism of monolayer molybdenum disulphide
journal, January 2012

  • Cao, Ting; Wang, Gang; Han, Wenpeng
  • Nature Communications, Vol. 3, Issue 1
  • DOI: 10.1038/ncomms1882

Ultralow thermal conductivity and high thermoelectric figure of merit in SnSe crystals
journal, April 2014

  • Zhao, Li-Dong; Lo, Shih-Han; Zhang, Yongsheng
  • Nature, Vol. 508, Issue 7496, p. 373-377
  • DOI: 10.1038/nature13184

Effect of spin-orbit interaction on the optical spectra of single-layer, double-layer, and bulk MoS 2
journal, July 2013

  • Molina-Sánchez, Alejandro; Sangalli, Davide; Hummer, Kerstin
  • Physical Review B, Vol. 88, Issue 4
  • DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevB.88.045412

Prediction of Giant Thermoelectric Power Factor in Type-VIII Clathrate Si46
journal, November 2014

  • Norouzzadeh, Payam; Myles, Charles W.; Vashaee, Daryoosh
  • Scientific Reports, Vol. 4, Issue 1
  • DOI: 10.1038/srep07028

Field-effect-modulated Seebeck coefficient in organic semiconductors
journal, February 2008

  • Pernstich, K. P.; Rössner, B.; Batlogg, B.
  • Nature Materials, Vol. 7, Issue 4
  • DOI: 10.1038/nmat2120

Screening and many-body effects in two-dimensional crystals: Monolayer MoS 2
journal, June 2016


Towards intrinsic charge transport in monolayer molybdenum disulfide by defect and interface engineering
journal, October 2014

  • Yu, Zhihao; Pan, Yiming; Shen, Yuting
  • Nature Communications, Vol. 5, Issue 1
  • DOI: 10.1038/ncomms6290

Interaction effects and thermoelectric power in low-temperature hopping
journal, August 1985


Imaging, Simulation, and Electrostatic Control of Power Dissipation in Graphene Devices
journal, December 2010

  • Bae, Myung-Ho; Ong, Zhun-Yong; Estrada, David
  • Nano Letters, Vol. 10, Issue 12
  • DOI: 10.1021/nl1011596

Theory of thermopower in two-dimensional graphene
journal, December 2009


Electric Field Effect in Atomically Thin Carbon Films
journal, October 2004


Enhanced thermoelectric performance of rough silicon nanowires
journal, January 2008

  • Hochbaum, Allon I.; Chen, Renkun; Delgado, Raul Diaz
  • Nature, Vol. 451, Issue 7175, p. 163-167
  • DOI: 10.1038/nature06381

Electronics and optoelectronics of two-dimensional transition metal dichalcogenides
journal, November 2012

  • Wang, Qing Hua; Kalantar-Zadeh, Kourosh; Kis, Andras
  • Nature Nanotechnology, Vol. 7, Issue 11, p. 699-712
  • DOI: 10.1038/nnano.2012.193

Transport in disordered monolayer MoS 2 nanoflakes—evidence for inhomogeneous charge transport
journal, August 2014


Thermopower in the hopping conductivity region: Transition from Mott’s to Zvyagin’s formula
journal, December 1998

  • Demishev, S. V.; Kondrin, M. V.; Pronin, A. A.
  • Journal of Experimental and Theoretical Physics Letters, Vol. 68, Issue 11
  • DOI: 10.1134/1.567803

Gate-tunable and thickness-dependent electronic and thermoelectric transport in few-layer MoS 2
journal, October 2016

  • Kayyalha, Morteza; Maassen, Jesse; Lundstrom, Mark
  • Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 120, Issue 13
  • DOI: 10.1063/1.4963364

Thermoelectric and Magnetothermoelectric Transport Measurements of Graphene
journal, March 2009


Phonon-limited mobility in n -type single-layer MoS 2 from first principles
journal, March 2012

  • Kaasbjerg, Kristen; Thygesen, Kristian S.; Jacobsen, Karsten W.
  • Physical Review B, Vol. 85, Issue 11
  • DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevB.85.115317

Review: Multiscale Thermal Modeling in Nanoelectronics
journal, January 2005


Springer Handbook of Nanotechnology
book, January 2006


Electronic properties of two-dimensional systems
journal, April 1982


Nanoscale Joule heating, Peltier cooling and current crowding at graphene–metal contacts
journal, April 2011

  • Grosse, Kyle L.; Bae, Myung-Ho; Lian, Feifei
  • Nature Nanotechnology, Vol. 6, Issue 5, p. 287-290
  • DOI: 10.1038/nnano.2011.39

Tightly bound trions in monolayer MoS2
journal, December 2012

  • Mak, Kin Fai; He, Keliang; Lee, Changgu
  • Nature Materials, Vol. 12, Issue 3
  • DOI: 10.1038/nmat3505

Black phosphorus field-effect transistors
journal, March 2014


Single-layer MoS2 transistors
journal, January 2011

  • Radisavljevic, B.; Radenovic, A.; Brivio, J.
  • Nature Nanotechnology, Vol. 6, Issue 3, p. 147-150
  • DOI: 10.1038/nnano.2010.279

Electronic and thermoelectric properties of few-layer transition metal dichalcogenides
journal, March 2014

  • Wickramaratne, Darshana; Zahid, Ferdows; Lake, Roger K.
  • The Journal of Chemical Physics, Vol. 140, Issue 12
  • DOI: 10.1063/1.4869142

Electrical and Thermoelectric Transport by Variable Range Hopping in Thin Black Phosphorus Devices
journal, June 2016


Large theoretical thermoelectric power factor of suspended single-layer MoS 2
journal, November 2014

  • Babaei, Hasan; Khodadadi, J. M.; Sinha, Sanjiv
  • Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 105, Issue 19
  • DOI: 10.1063/1.4901342

Nature of Electronic States in Atomically Thin MoS2 Field-Effect Transistors
journal, October 2011

  • Ghatak, Subhamoy; Pal, Atindra Nath; Ghosh, Arindam
  • ACS Nano, Vol. 5, Issue 10, p. 7707-7712
  • DOI: 10.1021/nn202852j

Complex thermoelectric materials
book, October 2010


An Information Theory-Inspired Strategy for Design of Re-programmable Encrypted Graphene-based Coding Metasurfaces at Terahertz Frequencies
journal, April 2018


The electronic properties of graphene
text, January 2007


Thermoelectric and Magnetothermoelectric Transport Measurements of Graphene
text, January 2008


The Nature of Electronic States in Atomically Thin MoS2 Field-Effect Transistors
text, January 2012


Mobility engineering and metal-insulator transition in monolayer MoS2
text, January 2013


Electrical Transport Properties of Single-Layer WS2
text, January 2014


Enhanced Thermoelectric Power in Graphene: Violation of the Mott Relation By Inelastic Scattering
text, January 2016


Electric Field Effect in Atomically Thin Carbon Films
text, January 2004


Works referencing / citing this record:

Effects of Defects on the Temperature-Dependent Thermal Conductivity of Suspended Monolayer Molybdenum Disulfide Grown by Chemical Vapor Deposition
journal, October 2017

  • Yarali, Milad; Wu, Xufei; Gupta, Tushar
  • Advanced Functional Materials, Vol. 27, Issue 46
  • DOI: 10.1002/adfm.201704357

Thermal Transport in 2D Semiconductors—Considerations for Device Applications
journal, August 2019

  • Zhao, Yunshan; Cai, Yongqing; Zhang, Lifa
  • Advanced Functional Materials, Vol. 30, Issue 8
  • DOI: 10.1002/adfm.201903929

Perspectives on Thermoelectricity in Layered and 2D Materials
journal, September 2018

  • Wu, Jing; Chen, Yabin; Wu, Junqiao
  • Advanced Electronic Materials, Vol. 4, Issue 12
  • DOI: 10.1002/aelm.201800248

2D Single‐Layer π‐Conjugated Nickel Bis(dithiolene) Complex: A Good‐Electron‐Poor‐Phonon Thermoelectric Material
journal, March 2019

  • Deng, Tianqi; Yong, Xue; Shi, Wen
  • Advanced Electronic Materials, Vol. 5, Issue 4
  • DOI: 10.1002/aelm.201800892

2D Materials for Large‐Area Flexible Thermoelectric Devices
journal, November 2019

  • Kanahashi, Kaito; Pu, Jiang; Takenobu, Taishi
  • Advanced Energy Materials, Vol. 10, Issue 11
  • DOI: 10.1002/aenm.201902842

Emerging Theory, Materials, and Screening Methods: New Opportunities for Promoting Thermoelectric Performance
journal, February 2019

  • Ouyang, Yulou; Zhang, Zhongwei; Li, Dengfeng
  • Annalen der Physik, Vol. 531, Issue 4
  • DOI: 10.1002/andp.201800437

Thermoelectric Properties and Carrier Localization in Ultrathin Layer of Nb-Doped MoS 2
journal, August 2018

  • Thi, Pham Xuan; Miyata, Masanobu; Van Ngoc, Huynh
  • physica status solidi (b), Vol. 255, Issue 9
  • DOI: 10.1002/pssb.201800125

MoB2 Driven Metallic Behavior and Interfacial Charge Transport Mechanism in MoS2/MoB2 Heterostructure: A First-Principles Study
journal, September 2018


First-principles investigation on electronic properties and band alignment of group III monochalcogenides
journal, September 2019


Giant power factors in p- and n-type large-area graphene films on a flexible plastic substrate
journal, November 2019

  • Kanahashi, Kaito; Ishihara, Masatou; Hasegawa, Masataka
  • npj 2D Materials and Applications, Vol. 3, Issue 1
  • DOI: 10.1038/s41699-019-0128-0

Thermal conductivity of suspended few-layer MoS 2
journal, January 2018

  • Aiyiti, Adili; Hu, Shiqian; Wang, Chengru
  • Nanoscale, Vol. 10, Issue 6
  • DOI: 10.1039/c7nr07522g

Monolayer SnP 3 : an excellent p-type thermoelectric material
journal, January 2019

  • Zhu, Xue-Liang; Liu, Peng-Fei; Zhang, Junrong
  • Nanoscale, Vol. 11, Issue 42
  • DOI: 10.1039/c9nr04726c

2D and 3D nanostructuring strategies for thermoelectric materials
journal, January 2019

  • Novak, Travis G.; Kim, Kisun; Jeon, Seokwoo
  • Nanoscale, Vol. 11, Issue 42
  • DOI: 10.1039/c9nr07406f

Strain induced valley degeneracy: a route to the enhancement of thermoelectric properties of monolayer WS 2
journal, January 2019


Anisotropic thermal transport in van der Waals layered alloys WSe 2(1- x ) Te 2 x
journal, June 2018

  • Qian, Xin; Jiang, Puqing; Yu, Peng
  • Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 112, Issue 24
  • DOI: 10.1063/1.5028258

New horizons in thermoelectric materials: Correlated electrons, organic transport, machine learning, and more
journal, May 2019

  • Urban, Jeffrey J.; Menon, Akanksha K.; Tian, Zhiting
  • Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 125, Issue 18
  • DOI: 10.1063/1.5092525

A statistical Seebeck coefficient model based on percolation theory in two-dimensional disordered systems
journal, June 2019

  • Wang, Lingfei; Thean, Aaron Voon-Yew; Liang, Gengchiau
  • Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 125, Issue 22
  • DOI: 10.1063/1.5098862

Optimal band gap for improved thermoelectric performance of two-dimensional Dirac materials
journal, July 2019

  • Hasdeo, Eddwi H.; Krisna, Lukas P. A.; Hanna, Muhammad Y.
  • Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 126, Issue 3
  • DOI: 10.1063/1.5100985

Thermoelectric measurements of high-resistance Janus monolayer transition-metal dichalcogenide
journal, October 2019

  • Mehta, Devika; Zhang, Jing; Smith, Brandon
  • Review of Scientific Instruments, Vol. 90, Issue 10
  • DOI: 10.1063/1.5125156

New highly efficient 2D SiC UV-absorbing material with plasmonic light trapping
journal, October 2019

  • Drissi, L. B.; Ramadan, F. Z.; Ferhati, H.
  • Journal of Physics: Condensed Matter, Vol. 32, Issue 2
  • DOI: 10.1088/1361-648x/ab3ab6

Intrinsic electronic transport and thermoelectric power factor in n-type doped monolayer MoS 2
journal, April 2018


Ultrahigh thermoelectric performance of 2H–MoS 2 nanosheets with incorporated conducting secondary phase
journal, August 2019

  • Gangwar, Pratisha; Kumar, Sunil; Khare, Neeraj
  • Materials Research Express, Vol. 6, Issue 10
  • DOI: 10.1088/2053-1591/ab38d6

Materials selection rules for optimum power factor in two-dimensional thermoelectrics
journal, November 2019


Ballistic thermoelectric properties of monolayer semiconducting transition metal dichalcogenides and oxides
journal, August 2019


Large thermoelectric power factor of high-mobility transition-metal dichalcogenides with 1 T phase
journal, February 2020


Raman Characterization on Two-Dimensional Materials-Based Thermoelectricity
journal, December 2018


Thermal Conductivity of Suspended Few-Layer MoS2
text, January 2018