Tin Selenide Molecular Precursor for the Solution Processing of Thermoelectric Materials and Devices
- 21 May 2020
- journal article
- research article
- Published by American Chemical Society (ACS) in ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces
- Vol. 12 (24), 27104-27111
- https://doi.org/10.1021/acsami.0c04331
Abstract
In the present work, we report a solution-based strategy to produce crystallographically textured SnSe bulk nanomaterials and printed layers with optimized thermoelectric performance in the direction normal to the substrate. Our strategy is based on the formulation of a molecular precursor that can be continuously decomposed to produce a SnSe powder or printed into predefined patterns. The precursor formulation and decomposition conditions are optimized to produce pure phase 2D SnSe nanoplates. The printed layer and the bulk material obtained after hot press displays a clear preferential orientation of the crystallographic domains, resulting in ultralow thermal conductivity of 0.55 Wm-1K-1 in the direction normal to the substrate. Such textured nanomaterials present highly anisotropic properties, with best thermoelectric performance in plane, i.e. in the directions parallel to the substrate, which coincide with the crystallographic bc plane of SnSe. This is an unfortunate characteristic because thermoelectric devices are designed to create/harvest temperature gradients in the direction normal to the substrate. We further demonstrate that this limitation can be overcome with the introduction of small amounts of tellurium in the precursor. The presence of tellurium allows reducing the band gap, increase both charge carrier concentration and mobility, especially cross plane, with a minimal decrease of the Seebeck coefficient. These effects translate into record out of plane ZT values at 800 K.Keywords
Funding Information
- Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovaci?n (GC 2017 SGR 128, RTI2018-093996-B-C31)
- European Regional Development Fund (RTI2018-093996-B-C31)
- Ministerio de Econom?a y Competitividad (ENE2016-77798-C4-3-R, ENE2017-85087-C3, SEV-2017- 0706)
- H2020 Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions (754411)
- Generalitat de Catalunya (2017 SGR 327)
- China Scholarship Council
- Instituci? Catalana de Recerca i Estudis Avan?ats
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