Recrystallization induced in situ nanostructures in bulk bismuth antimony tellurides: a simple top down route and improved thermoelectric properties
- 12 August 2010
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) in Energy & Environmental Science
- Vol. 3 (10), 1519-1523
- https://doi.org/10.1039/c0ee00012d
Abstract
Recrystallization induced in situ nanostructure formation was used as a new means to obtain high performance polycrystalline thermoelectric materials, which was realized by a simple hot forging process to the coarse-grained Bi0.5Sb1.5Te3 alloys. The pole figure measurement showed that the oriented textures were weakened or eliminated after hot forging of the alloys with a quasi-layered crystal structure, implying the presence of deformation recrystallization. Transmission electron microscopy observation revealed the recrystallization induced in situ nanostructures and high density of defects in the hot forged samples. Transport property measurements indicated that the hot forged samples had both increased electrical power factor and reduced thermal conductivity, compare to the initial alloys without hot forging. The maximum ZT values of >1.3 at room temperature were reproducibly obtained for the hot forged samples, suggesting that the simple new method can be applied for large scale production of high performance polycrystalline thermoelectric materials with in situ nanostructures.This publication has 20 references indexed in Scilit:
- Synthesis and Thermoelectric Characterization of Bi2Te3 NanoparticlesAdvanced Functional Materials, 2009
- High-Thermoelectric Performance of Nanostructured Bismuth Antimony Telluride Bulk AlloysScience, 2008
- New Directions for Low‐Dimensional Thermoelectric MaterialsAdvanced Materials, 2007
- Quantum Dot Superlattice Thermoelectric Materials and DevicesScience, 2002
- Thin-film thermoelectric devices with high room-temperature figures of meritNature, 2001
- Thermoelectric Cooling and Power GenerationScience, 1999
- Thermoelectric properties of 25%Bi2Te3-75%Sb2Te3 solid solution prepared by hot-pressing methodJournal of Physics and Chemistry of Solids, 1997
- Experimental study of the effect of quantum-well structures on the thermoelectric figure of meritPhysical Review B, 1996
- Thermoelectric figure of merit of a one-dimensional conductorPhysical Review B, 1993
- Effect of quantum-well structures on the thermoelectric figure of meritPhysical Review B, 1993