Enhanced thermoelectric performance of Cu2SnSe3 via synergistic effects of Cd-doping and CuGaTe2 alloying

• Published in: Rare metals 2022, Vol.41 (10), p.3466-3474
• Main Authors: Fan, Yi-Jing, Peng, Kun-Ling, Huang, Yu-Ling, Liao, Hui-Jun, Huang, Zheng-Yong, Li, Jian, Yan, Yan-Ci, Gu, Hao-Shuang, Zhang, Bin, Hu, Yong-Ming, Lu, Xu, Zhou, Xiao-Yuan
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Alloying; Biomaterials; Chemistry and Materials Science; Doping; Energy; Figure of merit; High temperature; Materials Engineering; Materials Science; Metallic Materials; Nanoscale Science and Technology; Original Article; Physical Chemistry; Synergistic effect; Thermal conductivity; Thermoelectricity; Transport properties
• ISSN: 1001-0521; 1867-7185
• DOI: 10.1007/s12598-022-02043-9

In this work, we show significantly enhanced thermoelectric performance in Cu 2 SnSe 3 via a synergistic effect of Cd-doping and CuGaTe 2 alloying in the temperature range of 300–823 K. Both the electron and phonon transport properties can be simultaneously regulated by Cd doping at Sn site, leading to a higher quality factor. Meanwhile, a maximum figure of merit ( zT ) value of ~ 0.68 was obtained for Cu 2 Sn 0.93 Cd 0.07 Se 3 sample at 823 K, which is about four times higher than that of the pristine sample ( zT  = 0.18 at 773 K). Furthermore, Cu 2 Sn 0.93 Cd 0.07 Se 3 was alloyed with CuGaTe 2 to reduce the lattice thermal conductivity in the high-temperature region. Consequently, a further enhanced zT value (0.77, 823 K) was achieved in the (Cu 2 Sn 0.93 Cd 0.07 Se 3 ) 0.94 (CuGaTe 2 ) 0.06 sample, with a high average zT ( zT ave ) value of 0.30 between 300 and 823 K. These results demonstrate that Cd-doping combined with CuGaTe 2 alloying could be an effective method to enhance zT values of Cu 2 SnSe 3 based compounds. Graphical abstract