Mechanical alloying boosted SnTe thermoelectrics
Article
Article Title | Mechanical alloying boosted SnTe thermoelectrics |
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ERA Journal ID | 213641 |
Article Category | Article |
Authors | Chen, Zhiyu (Author), Sun, Qiang (Author), Zhang, Fujie (Author), Mao, Jianjun (Author), Chen, Yue (Author), Li, Meng (Author), Chen, Zhi-Gang (Author) and Ang, Ran (Author) |
Journal Title | Materials Today Physics |
Journal Citation | 17, pp. 1-8 |
Article Number | 100340 |
Number of Pages | 8 |
Year | 2021 |
Publisher | Elsevier |
Place of Publication | United Kingdom |
ISSN | 2542-5293 |
Digital Object Identifier (DOI) | https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mtphys.2021.100340 |
Web Address (URL) | https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S2542529321000018 |
Abstract | The well converged transporting valence bands in SnTe-MnTe alloys ensures a superior electronic performance, while their thermal transport properties still need to be further optimized for higher thermoelectric performance. Herein, the mechanical alloying is utilized to fabricate the SnTe-15%MnTe-2%Bi alloys, leading to a remarkable reduction of grain size as well as the formation of dense dislocations. Unexpectedly, the solubility of MnTe is reduced to ∼6% by mechanical alloying at room temperature, inducing an enhanced phonon scattering from nanoprecipitates. These full-scale hierarchical microstructures effectively decrease the lattice thermal conductivity of SnTe-15%MnTe-2%Bi to ∼0.5 W m−1 K−1 at 850 K. In addition, the increased vacancy formation energy triggers a reduction in carrier concentration (∼3 × 1019 cm−3) due to the decreased MnTe content in matrix. Moreover, the energy filtering effect through precipitate-matrix interface enables an improvement in Seebeck coefficient. Accordingly, the figure of merit of SnTe-15%MnTe-2%Bi is dramatically increased to ∼1.5 at 850 K by mechanical alloying. This work clearly demonstrates that mechanical alloying changes the composition and microstructure of materials, which significantly affect the thermoelectric transport properties, enabling an obvious performance enhancement. |
Keywords | Thermoelectric materials; SnTe; Hierarchical microstructures; Interfacial engineering; Mechanical alloying |
ANZSRC Field of Research 2020 | 401603. Compound semiconductors |
401605. Functional materials | |
340301. Inorganic materials (incl. nanomaterials) | |
401807. Nanomaterials | |
Public Notes | Files associated with this item cannot be displayed due to copyright restrictions. |
Byline Affiliations | Sichuan University, China |
University of Queensland | |
University of Hong Kong, China | |
Centre for Future Materials | |
Institution of Origin | University of Southern Queensland |
https://research.usq.edu.au/item/q7559/mechanical-alloying-boosted-snte-thermoelectrics
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