Simultaneous enhancement in thermoelectric power factor and phonon blocking in hierarchical nanostructured β-Zn4Sb3-Cu3SbSe4

In Pb and Te-free β-Zn4Sb3 based composites incorporated with nanophase Cu3SbSe4 (∼200 nm), we concurrently realize ∼30% increase in thermoelectric power factor (PF) through an energy filtering effect caused by carrier scattering at interface barriers, and around twofold reduction in lattice thermal...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Applied physics letters 2014-01, Vol.104 (1)
Main Authors: Zou, T. H., Qin, X. Y., Li, D., Sun, G. L., Dou, Y. C., Wang, Q. Q., Ren, B. J., Zhang, J., Xin, H. X., Li, Y. Y.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Applied physics
Copper selenides
Figure of merit
Filtration
Power factor
Scattering
Thermal conductivity
Thermoelectricity
Zinc antimonides
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 Pb and Te-free β-Zn4Sb3 based composites incorporated with nanophase Cu3SbSe4 (∼200 nm), we concurrently realize ∼30% increase in thermoelectric power factor (PF) through an energy filtering effect caused by carrier scattering at interface barriers, and around twofold reduction in lattice thermal conductivity due to interface scattering allowing the figure of merit (ZT) to reach 1.37 at 648 K in the composite system with 5 vol. % of Cu3SbSe4. Present results demonstrate that simultaneous enhancement of PF and phonon blocking can be achieved via proper design of a material-system and its microstructures, resulting in large increase in ZT of a material-system.
ISSN:0003-6951
1077-3118
DOI:10.1063/1.4861156