Electrical transport and thermoelectric properties of Te–Se solid solutions

Publication date: Available online 20 May 2019Source: Physics Letters AAuthor(s): Manman Yang, Hongyu Zhu, Wencai Yi, Shangsheng Li, Meihua Hu, Qiang Hu, Baoli Du, Xiaobing Liu, Taichao SuAbstractIn this paper, p-type thermoelectric material Te–Se solid solutions have been successfully prepared by the high-pressure technique. The thermal conductivity of Te was depressed sharply by Se alloying. An extremely low thermal conductivity ∼0.27 W m−1 K−1 was obtained for Te alloyed with 15 mol% Se, which near the theoretical minimum, κmin. The bipolar diffusion effect of Te was suppressed by Se alloying due to the increased band gap, which lead to enhanced Seebeck coefficient and depressed bipolar diffusion thermal conductivity under high temperature. The maximum figure of merit, ZT of 0.37 at 480 K was obtained for Te alloyed with 5 mol% Se, which is about twice higher than that of pristine Te.

Source: Physics Letters A - May 22, 2019 Category: Physics Source Type: research