Abstract
Antimony telluride thin films display intrinsic thermoelectric properties at room temperature, although their Seebeck coefficients and electrical conductivities may be unsatisfactory. To address these issues, we designed composite films containing upper and lower Sb2Te3 layers encasing conductive poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):poly(4-styrenesulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS)- polyvinylpyrrolidone(PVP) nanowires. Thermoelectric Sb2Te3/PEDOT:PSS-PVP/Sb2Te3(ED) (STPPST) hybrid composite films were prepared by a multi-step coating process involving sputtering, electrospinning, and electrodeposition stages. The STPPST hybrid composites were characterized by field-emission scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, ultraviolet photoelectron spectroscopy, and infrared spectroscopy. The thermoelectric performance of the prepared STPPST hybrid composites, evaluated in terms of the power factor, electrical conductivity and Seebeck coefficient, demonstrated enhanced thermoelectric efficiency over a reference Sb2Te3 film. The performance of the composite Sb2Te3/PEDOT:PSS-PVP/Sb2Te3 film was greatly enhanced, with σ = 365 S/cm, S = 124 μV/K, and a power factor 563 μW/mK.
Highlights
Because of their attractive intrinsic thermoelectric properties at near room temperature, antimony telluride (Sb2 Te3 ) thin films have been intensively studied by several research groups [1,2,3,4]
To explore the influence of the embedded PEDOT:PSS-PVP nanofibers in the Sb2 Te3 film, a reference Sb2 Te3 /Sb2 Te3(ED) film was fabricated for comparison (Figure 1d)
The potential energy barrier formed between the PEDOT:PSS and Sb2 Te3 hybrid composite seems to block the low energy carriers around the Fermi energy level, according to the charge filtering effect
Summary
Because of their attractive intrinsic thermoelectric properties at near room temperature, antimony telluride (Sb2 Te3 ) thin films have been intensively studied by several research groups [1,2,3,4]. Even though an amorphous Sb2 Te3 phase fabricated via an electrochemical process possessed a relatively high S of ~500 μV/K at room temperature, it only exhibited very low electrical conductivity (σ, ~10−2 S/cm) [5]. To overcome this problem, scientists have modulated various factors, including chemical composition [7], crystal phase [5,8], crystallinity [9], charge-carrier concentration [10], and mobility [11,12]. To date,Toresearchers have investigated organic-inorganic composites such as such as poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):poly(4-styrenesulfonate).
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