High thermoelectric figure of merit in heavy hole dominated PbTe

Thermoelectric transport properties of p-type PbTe:Na, with high hole concentrations of approximately 1020 cm-3, are reinvestigated from room temperature to 750 K. The greatly enhanced Seebeck coefficient at these doping levels can be understood by the presence of a sharp increase in the density of...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Energy & environmental science 2011-01, Vol.4 (6), p.2085-2089
Main Authors: Pei, Yanzhong, LaLonde, Aaron, Iwanaga, Shiho, Snyder, GJeffrey
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Fermi surfaces
Figure of merit
Intermetallics
Lead base alloys
Lead tellurides
Nanostructure
Thermoelectricity
Transport properties
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Summary:Thermoelectric transport properties of p-type PbTe:Na, with high hole concentrations of approximately 1020 cm-3, are reinvestigated from room temperature to 750 K. The greatly enhanced Seebeck coefficient at these doping levels can be understood by the presence of a sharp increase in the density of states around the Fermi level. As a result, the thermoelectric figure of merit, zT, reaches [similar]1.4 at 750 K. The influence of these heavy hole carriers may contribute to a similarly high zT observed in related p-type PbTe-based systems such as Tl-doped PbTe and nanostructured composite materials.
ISSN:1754-5692
1754-5706
DOI:10.1039/C0EE00456A