Optimizing thermoelectric property of antimony telluride nanowires by tailoring composition and crystallinity

In this work, an effect of the composition and microstructure changes on the electrical and thermoelectric properties of antimony telluride (SbxTey) nanowires was investigated to determine the optimum conditions that give the highest Seebeck coefficient. For a systematic study, a facile template-dir...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Materials research express 2015-08, Vol.2 (8), p.85006-10
Main Authors: Kim, Jiwon, Lim, Jae-Hong, Bosze, Wayne, Myung, Nosang V
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Antimony
antimony telluride (SbTe)
Coefficients
Crystallinity
Electrical resistivity
electrodeposition
Field effect transistors
Intermetallics
nanostructures
Nanowires
phase change memory (PCM)
Thermoelectricity
thermoelectrics (TE)
transport properties
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:In this work, an effect of the composition and microstructure changes on the electrical and thermoelectric properties of antimony telluride (SbxTey) nanowires was investigated to determine the optimum conditions that give the highest Seebeck coefficient. For a systematic study, a facile template-directed electrodeposition technique was utilized to prepare amorphous SbxTey nanowires with a well-controlled dimension and composition. The composition-dependent phase transition behavior of the nanowires, corresponding to the amorphous-to-crystalline solid-state transition, was investigated by measuring their electrical resistivity changes, where the electrical resistivity variation ratio (Δ 0 = ( − 0) 0) was highly dependent on the Sb content. Temperature-dependent electrical properties (electrical resistivity, thermal activation energy (Ea), and field effect transistor (FET) mobility) of the amorphous and crystalline nanowires were also characterized before after the phase transition. Material properties of the nanowires, such as crystallinity, grain size, and phase segregation as a function of the Sb content, were tailored by a post-annealing process. The tailored material properties successfully altered the electrical and thermoelectric properties of the nanowires. The highest Seebeck coefficient of 318 V K−1 at the carrier concentration of 1.1 × 1019 cm−3 was observed in the Te-segregated Sb2Te3 (i.e., Sb32Te68) nanowires.
ISSN:2053-1591
2053-1591
DOI:10.1088/2053-1591/2/8/085006