Significant Enhancement In ZT Research Articles

Lattice Softening and Band Convergence in GeTe-Based Alloys for High Thermoelectric Performance.

GeTe-based alloys have been studied as promising TE materials in the midtemperature range as a lead-free alternate to PbTe due to their nontoxicity. Our previous study on GeTe1-xIx revealed that I-doping increases lattice anharmonicity and decreases the structural phase transition temperature, consequently enhancing the thermoelectric performance. Our current work elucidates the synergistic interplay between band convergence and lattice softening, resulting in an enhanced thermoelectric performance for Ge1-ySbyTe0.9I0.1 (y = 0.10, 0.12, 0.14, and 0.16). Sb doping in GeTe0.9I0.1 serves a double role: first, it leads to lattice softening, thereby reducing lattice thermal conductivity; second, it promotes a band convergence, thus a higher valley degeneracy. The presence of lattice softening is corroborated by an increase in the internal strain ratio observed in X-ray diffraction patterns. Doping also introduces phonon scattering centers, further diminishing lattice thermal conductivity. Additionally, variations in the electronic band structure are indicated by an increase in density of state effective mass and a decrease in carrier mobility with Sb concentration. Besides, Sb doping optimizes the carrier concentration efficiently. Through a two-band modeling and electronic band structure calculations, the valence band convergence due to Sb doping can be confirmed. Specifically, the energy difference between valence bands progressively narrows upon Sb doping in Ge1-ySbyTe0.9I0.1 (y = 0, 0.02, 0.05, 0.10, 0.12, 0.14, and 0.16). As a culmination of these effects, we have achieved a significant enhancement in zT for Ge1-ySbyTe0.9I0.1 (y = 0.10, 0.12, 0.14, and 0.16) across the entire range of measured temperatures. Notably, the sample with y = 0.12 exhibits the highest zT value of 1.70 at 723 K.

Bismuth Telluride Thermoelectrics with 8% Module Efficiency for Waste Heat Recovery Application.

SummaryThermoelectric generators (TEGs) offer cost-effective and sustainable solid-state energy conversion mechanism from wasted heat into useful electrical power. Thermoelectric (TE) materials based upon bismuth telluride (BiTe) systems are widely utilized in applications ranging from energy generation to sensing to cooling. There is demand for BiTe materials with high figure of merit (zT) and TEG modules with high conversion efficiency over intermediate temperatures (25°C–250°C). Here we provide fundamental breakthrough in design of BiTe-based TE materials and utilize them to demonstrate modules with outstanding conversion efficiency of 8%, which is 40% higher compared with state-of-the-art commercial modules. The average zT of 1.08 for p-type and 0.84 for n-type bismuth telluride alloys is obtained between 25 and 250°C. The significant enhancement in zT is achieved through compositional and defect engineering in both p- and n-type materials. The high conversion efficiency accelerates the transition of TEGs for waste heat recovery.

Graphene network in copper sulfide leading to enhanced thermoelectric properties and thermal stability

Copper sulfide has received wide attention as a potential thermoelectric material with high performance and abundant resource. While the liquid-like Cu ions play an important role for the low κL and high ZT values, grain-boundary engineering is needed to further enhance the phonon scattering and the thermal stability of Cu2-xS. Here, we introduced the 3D graphene heterointerface into the Cu2-xS matrix by a facile technique combining mechanical alloying (MA) and spark plasma sintering (SPS). A significant ZT enhancement was realized with the highest ZT up to 1.56 and a high power factor of 1197 μW m−1 K−2 at 873 K in the sample with 0.75 wt% graphene. Additionally, the composite showed excellent reproducibility of PF after five cycles testing from room temperature to 873 K, which confirmed the practical application potentiality of this composite.

Significant ZT enhancement in p-type Ti(Co,Fe)Sb–InSb nanocomposites via a synergistic high-mobility electron injection, energy-filtering and boundary-scattering approach

It has been demonstrated that InSb nanoinclusions, which are formed in situ, can simultaneously improve all three individual thermoelectric properties of the n-type half-Heusler compound (Ti,Zr,Hf)(Co,Ni)Sb (Xie WJ, He J, Zhu S, Su XL, Wang SY, Holgate T, et al. Acta Mater 2010;58:4795). In the present work, the same approach is adopted to the p-type half-Heusler compound Ti(Co,Fe)Sb. The results of resistivity, Seebeck coefficient, thermal conductivity and Hall coefficient measurements indicate that the combined high-mobility electron injection, low energy electron filtering and boundary scattering, again, lead to a simultaneous improvement in all three individual thermoelectric properties: enhanced Seebeck coefficient and electrical conductivity as well as reduced lattice thermal conductivity. A figure of merit of ZT≈0.33 was attained at 900K for the sample containing 1.0at.% InSb nanoinclusions, a ∼450% improvement over the nanoinclusion-free sample. This represents a rare case that the same nanostructuring approach works successfully for both p-type and n-type thermoelectric materials of the same class, hence pointing to a promising materials design route for higher-performance half-Heusler materials in the future and hopefully will realize similar improvement in thermoelectric devices based on such half-Heusler alloys.

Enhanced thermoelectric figure-of-merit in spark plasma sintered nanostructured n-type SiGe alloys

We report a significant enhancement in the thermoelectric figure-of-merit of phosphorous doped nanostructured n-type Si80Ge20 alloys, which were synthesized employing high energy ball milling followed by rapid-heating using spark plasma sintering. The rapid-heating rates, used in spark plasma sintering, allow the achievement of near-theoretical density in the sintered alloys, while retaining the nanostructural features introduced by ball-milling. The nanostructured alloys display a low thermal conductivity (2.3 W/mK) and a high value of Seebeck coefficient (−290 μV/K) resulting in a significant enhancement in ZT to about 1.5 at 900 °C, which is so far the highest reported value for n-type Si80Ge20 alloys.

Enhancement of thermoelectric figure of merit in bismuth nanotubes

Thermoelectric transport properties of bismuth nanotubes are theoretically predicted and mechanisms of the enhancement of the thermoelectric figure of merit (ZT) are discussed. A significant enhancement in ZT was found and is mainly attributed to the enhanced Seebeck coefficient resulting from the modified density of state and decreased phonon thermal conductivity induced by the boundary phonon scattering in nanotubes. The optimum power factor can be realized at the Fermi energy level locating near the subband edge, and the optimal ZT increases with decreasing the thickness and diameter of nanotubes.

Thin-film thermoelectric devices with high room-temperature figures of merit.

Thermoelectric materials are of interest for applications as heat pumps and power generators. The performance of thermoelectric devices is quantified by a figure of merit, ZT, where Z is a measure of a material's thermoelectric properties and T is the absolute temperature. A material with a figure of merit of around unity was first reported over four decades ago, but since then-despite investigation of various approaches-there has been only modest progress in finding materials with enhanced ZT values at room temperature. Here we report thin-film thermoelectric materials that demonstrate a significant enhancement in ZT at 300 K, compared to state-of-the-art bulk Bi2Te3 alloys. This amounts to a maximum observed factor of approximately 2.4 for our p-type Bi2Te3/Sb2Te3 superlattice devices. The enhancement is achieved by controlling the transport of phonons and electrons in the superlattices. Preliminary devices exhibit significant cooling (32 K at around room temperature) and the potential to pump a heat flux of up to 700 W cm-2; the localized cooling and heating occurs some 23,000 times faster than in bulk devices. We anticipate that the combination of performance, power density and speed achieved in these materials will lead to diverse technological applications: for example, in thermochemistry-on-a-chip, DNA microarrays, fibre-optic switches and microelectrothermal systems.