Manipulating thermal and electronic transports in thermoelectric Bi2Te3 nanowires by porphyrin adsorption

Erdong Song,Enzhi Xu,Brian Swartzentruber,Julio A Martinez,Yaron Amouyal,Shixiong Zhang,Andrei Baranovskiy,Tito Busani

doi:10.1063/1.5046385

Abstract

Decoupling the electronic thermal and electrical conductivities is one of the limitations hindering a breakthrough in thermoelectric efficiency. After a conformal surface coating of bismuth telluride nanowires (Bi2Te3 NWs) by porphyrins, the thermal conductivity increases from 0.8 to 1.0 Wm-1K-1 at 300 K without any obvious change in electrical conductivity. Density Functional Theory (DFT) calculations assisted by Boltzmann Transport Equation (BTE) simulations of electronic transport properties indicate that the electronic thermal transport is enhanced by the depletion of surface charge carriers, which results in transition from metallic to semiconducting behavior. Thus, the adsorption of porphyrin onto the Bi2Te3 NWs layer suppresses the surface electronic conduction, resulting in thermal electronic conduction dictated by the bulk of the NW. The results mean that electronic thermal transport can be decoupled from the electrical conductivity by changing the density of surface states on Bi2Te3 NWs.

Highlights

Bismuth telluride is widely employed for thermoelectric applications around room temperature due to its high thermoelectric efficiency.[1,2,3] In Bi2Te3, charge carrier and phonon transport properties are dependent of the crystallographic orientation
A porphyrin shell was formed onto Bi2Te3 NWs by layer-by-layer deposition to produce a conformal and uniform coating
The TE properties of Bi2Te3 NWs can be strongly influenced by the crystal orientation at different temperature regimes

Summary

INTRODUCTION

Bismuth telluride is widely employed for thermoelectric applications around room temperature due to its high thermoelectric efficiency.[1,2,3] In Bi2Te3, charge carrier and phonon transport properties are dependent of the crystallographic orientation.

EXPERIMENTAL

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

CONCLUSIONS