Preparation of cuprous iodide transparent thermoelectric materials by SILAR method

Abstract

Thermoelectric generator can obtain electric energy from waste heat, which is one of the best ways to recycle the energy from waste heat. At present, most thermoelectric materials tend to be opaque, so the preparation of transparent thermoelectric materials is one of the research directions of thermoelectric materials. In this work, p-type transparent CuI films were prepared by successive ionic layer adsorption and reaction (SILAR) method. The crystalline structure of the film was determined to be γ-CuI by X-ray diffraction. The surface morphology of the film analyzed by scanning electron microscope was flat. In the wavelength of visible light, the average transmittance of CuI film is 60-70%. The energy band of the prepared CuI film is calculated by the formula to be about 3.04 eV. The results show that the CuI film prepared by the SILAR method has excellent optical transparency.