Enhanced thermoelectric properties of n-type Ti-doped PbTe

MRS Advances ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (30) ◽  
pp. 1683-1689
Author(s):  
Ariel Loutati ◽  
Shir Zuarets ◽  
David Fuks ◽  
Yaniv Gelbstein

AbstractThermoelectric (TE) generators, converting waste heat to electricity regain their attractiveness for reduction of fossil fuels’ reliance, and consequently minimizing adverse environmental effects. Such generators are based on an electrical series connection of TE couples, which consist n- and p- type semiconducting legs divided by metallic bridges. While for intermediate temperatures of up to 500°C, n-type PbTe was extensively studied and employed in commercial TE power generation applications, its maximal efficiency, as was reflected by the TE figure of merit, ZT, was in most of the cases maximized at a narrow temperature range for any given donor dopant concentration. The most commonly applied donor dopants are iodine and bismuth. Yet, some interesting characteristics were recently proposed upon using Ti as a donor dopant. Up to date an impressive maximal ZT of ∼1.2 was obtained at 500°C, upon doping of PbTe by 0.1 at.% Ti, while no lower concentrations were ever investigated. In the current research a lower, 0.05 at.% Ti doping level was applied, leading to the highest ever reported ZT values, for any given Ti doped PbTe, up to 350°C. Since the chemical compatibility of Ti with PbTe, as a metallic bridge in such couples, is well established, mainly due to its low diffusion rates, the potential of generating a stable Ti-doped functionally graded n-type PbTe material, with enhanced TE performance, is currently being proposed.

Energies ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (23) ◽  
pp. 4561 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nguyen T. Hung ◽  
Ahmad R. T. Nugraha ◽  
Riichiro Saito

Thermoelectric (TE) material is a class of materials that can convert heat to electrical energy directly in a solid-state-device without any moving parts and that is environmentally friendly. The study and development of TE materials have grown quickly in the past decade. However, their development goes slowly by the lack of cheap TE materials with high Seebeck coefficient and good electrical conductivity. Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are particularly attractive as TE materials because of at least three reasons: (1) CNTs possess various band gaps depending on their structure, (2) CNTs represent unique one-dimensional carbon materials which naturally satisfies the conditions of quantum confinement effect to enhance the TE efficiency and (3) CNTs provide us with a platform for developing lightweight and flexible TE devices due to their mechanical properties. The TE power factor is reported to reach 700–1000 W / m K 2 for both p-type and n-type CNTs when purified to contain only doped semiconducting CNT species. Therefore, CNTs are promising for a variety of TE applications in which the heat source is unlimited, such as waste heat or solar heat although their figure of merit Z T is still modest (0.05 at 300 K). In this paper, we review in detail from the basic concept of TE field to the fundamental TE properties of CNTs, as well as their applications. Furthermore, the strategies are discussed to improve the TE properties of CNTs. Finally, we give our perspectives on the tremendous potential of CNTs-based TE materials and composites.


1996 ◽  
Vol 442 ◽  
Author(s):  
V. Valdna

AbstractPhotoluminescence and conductivity of doped with chlorine and copper ZnTe, Zn(SeTe) and CdTe are investigated. We suppose that interstitial tellurium and complex defects of Tei with a donor dopant Cl can significantly affect the luminescence spectra and conductivity value of ZnTe and CdTe. This assumption is confirmed experimentally. We found that copper dopant in CdTe: Cl can increase the resistivity value of p-type CdTe.


Materials ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (13) ◽  
pp. 3448
Author(s):  
Francisco Arturo López Cota ◽  
José Alonso Díaz-Guillén ◽  
Oscar Juan Dura ◽  
Marco Antonio López de la Torre ◽  
Joelis Rodríguez-Hernández ◽  
...  

This contribution deals with the mechanochemical synthesis, characterization, and thermoelectric properties of tetrahedrite-based materials, Cu12-xMxSb4S13 (M = Fe2+, Zn2+, Cd2+; x = 0, 1.5, 2). High-energy mechanical milling allows obtaining pristine and substituted tetrahedrites, after short milling under ambient conditions, of stoichiometric mixtures of the corresponding commercially available binary sulfides, i.e., Cu2S, CuS, Sb2S3, and MS (M = Fe2+, Zn2+, Cd2+). All the target materials but those containing Cd were obtained as single-phase products; some admixture of a hydrated cadmium sulfate was also identified by XRD as a by-product when synthesizing Cu10Cd2Sb4S13. The as-obtained products were thermally stable when firing in argon up to a temperature of 350–400 °C. Overall, the substitution of Cu(II) by Fe(II), Zn(II), or Cd(II) reduces tetrahedrites’ thermal and electrical conductivities but increases the Seebeck coefficient. Unfortunately, the values of the thermoelectric figure of merit obtained in this study are in general lower than those found in the literature for similar samples obtained by other powder processing methods; slight compositional changes, undetected secondary phases, and/or deficient sintering might account for some of these discrepancies.


MRS Advances ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (10) ◽  
pp. 481-487 ◽  
Author(s):  
Norifusa Satoh ◽  
Masaji Otsuka ◽  
Yasuaki Sakurai ◽  
Takeshi Asami ◽  
Yoshitsugu Goto ◽  
...  

ABSTRACTWe examined a working hypothesis of sticky thermoelectric (TE) materials, which is inversely designed to mass-produce flexible TE sheets with lamination or roll-to-roll processes without electric conductive adhesives. Herein, we prepared p-type and n-type sticky TE materials via mixing antimony and bismuth powders with low-volatilizable organic solvents to achieve a low thermal conductivity. Since the sticky TE materials are additionally injected into punched polymer sheets to contact with the upper and bottom electrodes in the fabrication process, the sticky TE modules of ca. 2.4 mm in thickness maintained temperature differences of ca. 10°C and 40°C on a hot plate of 40 °C and 120°C under a natural-air cooling condition with a fin. In the single-cell resistance analysis, we found that 75∼150-µm bismuth powder shows lower resistance than the smaller-sized one due to the fewer number of particle-particle interfaces in the electric pass between the upper and bottom electrodes. After adjusting the printed wiring pattern for the upper and bottom electrodes, we achieved 42 mV on a hot plate (120°C) with the 6 x 6 module having 212 Ω in the total resistance. In addition to the possibility of mass production at a reasonable cost, the sticky TE materials provide a low thermal conductivity for flexible TE modules to capture low-temperature waste heat under natural-air cooling conditions with fins for the purpose of energy harvesting.


2013 ◽  
Vol 06 (05) ◽  
pp. 1340007 ◽  
Author(s):  
CELINE BARRETEAU ◽  
LIN PAN ◽  
YAN-LING PEI ◽  
LI-DONG ZHAO ◽  
DAVID BERARDAN ◽  
...  

During the past two years, we have underlined the great potential of p-type oxychalcogenides, with parent compound BiCuSeO , for thermoelectric applications in the medium temperature range (400–650°C). These materials, which do not contain lead and are less expensive than Te containing materials, exhibit large thermoelectric figure of merit, exceeding 1 in a wide temperature range, mainly due to an intrinsically very low thermal conductivity. This paper summarizes the main chemical and crystallographic features of this system, as well as the thermoelectric properties. It also gives new directions to improve these properties, and discuss the potential of these materials for wide scale applications in thermoelectric conversion system in the medium temperature range.


2007 ◽  
Vol 46 (No. 27) ◽  
pp. L673-L675 ◽  
Author(s):  
Takeyuki Sekimoto ◽  
Ken Kurosaki ◽  
Hiroaki Muta ◽  
Shinsuke Yamanaka

Author(s):  
Chongjian Zhou ◽  
Yong Kyu Lee ◽  
Yuan Yu ◽  
Sejin Byun ◽  
Zhong-Zhen Luo ◽  
...  

AbstractThermoelectric materials generate electric energy from waste heat, with conversion efficiency governed by the dimensionless figure of merit, ZT. Single-crystal tin selenide (SnSe) was discovered to exhibit a high ZT of roughly 2.2–2.6 at 913 K, but more practical and deployable polycrystal versions of the same compound suffer from much poorer overall ZT, thereby thwarting prospects for cost-effective lead-free thermoelectrics. The poor polycrystal bulk performance is attributed to traces of tin oxides covering the surface of SnSe powders, which increases thermal conductivity, reduces electrical conductivity and thereby reduces ZT. Here, we report that hole-doped SnSe polycrystalline samples with reagents carefully purified and tin oxides removed exhibit an ZT of roughly 3.1 at 783 K. Its lattice thermal conductivity is ultralow at roughly 0.07 W m–1 K–1 at 783 K, lower than the single crystals. The path to ultrahigh thermoelectric performance in polycrystalline samples is the proper removal of the deleterious thermally conductive oxides from the surface of SnSe grains. These results could open an era of high-performance practical thermoelectrics from this high-performance material.


2005 ◽  
Vol 297-300 ◽  
pp. 875-880
Author(s):  
Cheol Ho Lim ◽  
Ki Tae Kim ◽  
Yong Hwan Kim ◽  
Dong Choul Cho ◽  
Young Sup Lee ◽  
...  

P-type Bi0.5Sb1.5Te3 compounds doped with 3wt% Te were fabricated by spark plasma sintering and their mechanical and thermoelectric properties were investigated. The sintered compounds with the bending strength of more than 50MPa and the figure-of-merit 2.9×10-3/K were obtained by controlling the mixing ratio of large powders (PL) and small powders (PS). Compared with the conventionally prepared single crystal thermoelectric materials, the bending strength was increased up to more than three times and the figure-of-merit Z was similar those of single crystals. It is expected that the mechanical properties could be improved by using hybrid powders without degradation of thermoelectric properties.


2009 ◽  
Vol 131 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
F. Ochs ◽  
W. Heidemann ◽  
H. Müller-Steinhagen

More than 30 international research and pilot seasonal thermal energy stores (TESs) were realized within the past 30 years. Experiences with operation of these systems show that TES are technically feasible and work well. Seasonal storage of solar thermal energy or of waste heat from heat and power cogeneration plants can significantly contribute to substitute fossil fuels in future energy systems. However, performance with respect to thermal losses and lifetime has to be enhanced, while construction costs have to be further reduced. This paper gives an overview about the state-of-the-art of seasonal thermal energy storage with the focus on tank and pit TES construction. Aspects of TES modeling are given. Based on modeled and measured data, the influence of construction type, system configuration, and boundary conditions on thermal losses of large-scale TES is identified. The focus is on large-scale applications with tank and pit thermal energy stores and on recent investigations on suitable materials and constructions. Furthermore, experiences with the operation of these systems with respect to storage performance are discussed.


2009 ◽  
Vol 1153 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. J. Syllaios ◽  
S. K. Ajmera ◽  
G. S. Tyber ◽  
C. L. Littler ◽  
R. E. Hollingworth

AbstractAn increasingly important application of thin film hydrogenated amorphous silicon (α-Si:H) is in infrared detection for microbolometer thermal imaging arrays. Such arrays consist of thin α-Si:H films that are integrated into a floating thermally isolated membrane structure. Among the α-Si:H material properties affecting the design and performance of microbolometers is the microstructure. In this work, Raman spectroscopy is used to study changes in the microstructure of protocrystalline p-type α-Si:H films grown by PECVD as substrate temperature, dopant concentration, and hydrogen dilution are varied. The films exhibit the four Raman spectral peaks corresponding to the TO, LO, LA, and TA modes. It is found that the TO Raman peak becomes increasingly well defined (decreasing line width and increasing intensity), and shifts towards the crystalline TO energy as substrate temperature is increased, H dilution of the reactants is increased, or as dopant concentration is decreased.


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