Effect of the Dopant Configuration on the Electronic Transport Properties of Nitrogen-Doped Carbon Nanotubes

Nitrogen-doped carbon nanotubes (N-CNTs) show promise in several applications related to catalysis and electrochemistry. In particular, N-CNTs with a single nitrogen dopant in the unit cell have been extensively studied computationally, but the structure-property correlations between the relative positions of several nitrogen dopants and the electronic transport properties of N-CNTs have not been systematically investigated with accurate hybrid density functional methods. We use hybrid density functional theory and semiclassical Boltzmann transport theory to systematically investigate the effect of different substitutional nitrogen doping configurations on the electrical conductivity of N-CNTs. Our results indicate significant variation in the electrical conductivity and the relative energies of the different dopant configurations. The findings can be utilized in the optimization of electrical transport properties of N-CNTs.

Thermoelectric properties of organic charge transfer salts from first-principle investigations: Role of molecular packing and triiodide anions

The potency of charge transfer (CT) salts in thermoelectric (TE) applications based on (5-CNB-EDT-TTF)4I3 is systematically explored by first-principles calculations combined with Boltzmann transport theory and deformation potential theory, focusing...

Thermoelectric performance of XI2 (X = Ge, Sn, Pb) bilayers

We study the thermal and electronic transport properties as well as the TE performance of three two-dimensional XI2 (X = Ge, Sn, Pb) bilayers using density functional theory and Boltzmann transport theory. We compared the lattice thermal conductivity, electrical conductivity, Seebeck coefficient, and dimensionless figure of merit (ZT) for the XI2 monolayers and bilayers. Our results show that the lattice thermal conductivity at room temperature for the bilayers is as low as ~1.1-1.7 Wm-1K-1, which is about 1.6 times as large as the monolayers for all the three materials. Electronic structure calculations show that all the XI2 bilayers are indirect-gap semiconductors with the band gap values between 1.84 eV and 1.96 eV at PBE level, which is similar as the corresponding monolayers. The calculated results of ZT show that the bilayer structures display much less direction dependent TE efficiency and have much larger n-type ZT values compared with the monolayers. The dramatic difference between the monolayer and bilayer indicates that the inter-layer interaction plays an important role in the TE performance of XI2, which provides the tunability on their TE characteristics.

Ab-initio study of mechanical and thermoelectric properties of topological semimetal: LaAuPb

Heusler compounds are a tuneable class of material with a cubic crystal structure that can serve as a platform to study the topological phase of a material. These materials have numerous technological and scientific applications. So, in the present work, the mechanical, thermodynamical, and thermoelectric properties of LaAuPb in the topological phase have been reported by using density functional theory and Boltzmann transport theory. LaAuPb is mechanically stable, and the Poisson ratio reveals its ductile nature. The specific heat of the proposed compound at room temperature is 73.94 J K-1 mol-1 at constant volume. Debye’s temperature is estimated to be 188.64K. Moreover, the lattice thermal conductivity of the compound is 14.64 W/mK and 3.66 W/mK at 300K and 1200K, respectively. Good thermoelectric response of LaAuPb can be confirmed by its high value of the figure of merit (0.46) at 1200K. Hence, it is a potential material for thermoelectric applications. This work will help future researchers to better understand the stability, nature and behaviour of LaAuPb in material fabrication.

Origin of phonon-limited mobility in two-dimensional metal dichalcogenides

Metal dichalcogenides are novel two-dimensional (2D) semiconductors after the discovery of graphene. In this article, phonon-limited mobility for six kinds of 2D semiconductors with the composition of MX2 is reviewed, in which M (Cr, Mo and W) is the transition metal, and X (S and Se) is the chalcogen element. The review is divided into three parts. In the first part, we briefly introduce the calculation method of mobility, including the empirical model and Boltzmann transport theory (BTE). The application scope, merits and limitations of these methods are summarized. In the second part, we explore empirical models to calculate the mobility of MX2, including longitudinal acoustic phonon, optical phonon (OP) and polar optical phonon (POP) models. The contribution of multi-valley to mobility is reviewed in the calculation. The differences between static and high-frequency dielectric constants (Δϵ) are only 0.13 and 0.03 for MoS2 and WS2. Such a low value indicates that the polarization hardly changes in the external field. So, their mobility is not determined by POP, but by deformation potential models. Different from GaAs, POP scattering plays a decisive role in its mobility. Our investigations also reveal that the scattering from POP cannot be ignored in CrSe2, MoSe2 and WSe2. In the third parts, we investigate the mobility of MX2 using electron–phonon coupling matrix element, which is based on BTE from the framework of a many-body quantum-field theory. Valence band splitting of MoS2 and WS2 is induced by spin–orbit coupling effect, which leads to the increase of hole mobility. In particular, we review in detail the theoretical and experimental results of MoS2 mobility in recent ten years, and its mobility is also compared with other materials to deepen the understanding.

Excellent Room-Temperature Thermoelectricity of 2D GeP3: Mexican-Hat-Shaped Band Dispersion and Ultralow Lattice Thermal Conductivity

Although some atomically thin 2D semiconductors have been found to possess good thermoelectric performance due to the quantum confinement effect, most of their behaviors occur at a higher temperature. Searching for promising thermoelectric materials at room temperature is meaningful and challenging. Inspired by the finding of moderate band gap and high carrier mobility in monolayer GeP3, we investigated the thermoelectric properties by using semi-classical Boltzmann transport theory and first-principles calculations. The results show that the room-temperature lattice thermal conductivity of monolayer GeP3 is only 0.43 Wm−1K−1 because of the low group velocity and the strong anharmonic phonon scattering resulting from the disordered phonon vibrations with out-of-plane and in-plane directions. Simultaneously, the Mexican-hat-shaped dispersion and the orbital degeneracy of the valence bands result in a large p-type power factor. Combining this superior power factor with the ultralow lattice thermal conductivity, a high p-type thermoelectric figure of merit of 3.33 is achieved with a moderate carrier concentration at 300 K. The present work highlights the potential applications of 2D GeP3 as an excellent room-temperature thermoelectric material.

Phonon Transport and Thermoelectric Properties of Imidazole-Graphyne

The pentagon has been proven to be an important structural unit for carbon materials, leading to different physical and chemical properties from those of hexagon-based allotropes. Following the development from graphene to penta-graphene, a breakthrough has very recently been made for graphyne—for example, imidazole-graphyne (ID-GY) was formed by assembling experimentally synthesized pentagonal imidazole molecules and acetylenic linkers. In this work, we study the thermal properties and thermoelectric performance of ID-GY by combining first principle calculations with the Boltzmann transport theory. The calculated lattice thermal conductivity of ID-GY is 10.76 W/mK at 300 K, which is only one tenth of that of γ-graphyne (106.24 W/mK). A detailed analysis of the harmonic and anharmonic properties, including the phonon group velocity, phonon lifetime, atomic displacement parameter, and bond energy curves, reveals that the low lattice thermal conductivity can be attributed to the low Young’s modulus, low Debye temperature, and high Grüneisen parameter. Furthermore, at room temperature, ID-GY can reach a high ZT value of 0.46 with a 5.8 × 1012 cm−2 hole concentration, which is much higher than the value for many other carbon-based materials. This work demonstrates that changing structural units from hexagonal to pentagonal can significantly reduce the lattice thermal conductivity and enhance the thermoelectric performance of carbon-based materials.

Promising Thermoelectric Performance in Two-Dimensional Semiconducting Boron Monolayer

A heavy element is a special character for high thermoelectric performance since it generally guarantees a low lattice thermal conductivity. Here, we unexpectedly found a promising thermoelectric performance in a two-dimensional semiconducting monolayer consisting of a light boron element. Using first-principles combined with the Boltzmann transport theory, we have shown that in contrast to graphene or black phosphorus, the boron monolayer has a low lattice thermal conductivity arising from its complex crystal of hexagonal vacancies. The conduction band with an intrinsic camelback shape leads to the high DOS and a high n-type Seebeck coefficient, while the highly degenerate valence band along with the small hole effective mass contributes to the high p-type power factor. As a result, we obtained the p-type thermoelectric figure of merit up to 0.96 at 300 K, indicating that the boron monolayer is a promising p-type thermoelectric material.