Authors
Li-Dong Zhao, HJ Wu, SQ Hao, Chun-I Wu, XY Zhou, Kanishka Biswas, JQ He, Timothy P Hogan, Ctirad Uher, Christopher Wolverton, Vinayak P Dravid, Mercouri G Kanatzidis
Publication date
2013
Journal
Energy & Environmental Science
Volume
6
Issue
11
Pages
3346-3355
Publisher
Royal Society of Chemistry
Description
We report a high ZT of ∼2.0 at 823 K for 2% Na-doped PbTe with 6% MgTe with excellent thermal stability. We attribute the high thermoelectric performance to a synergistic combination of enhanced power factor, reduction of the lattice thermal conductivity and simultaneous suppression of bipolar thermal conductivity. MgTe inclusion in PbTe owns triple functions: the Mg alloying within the solubility limit in PbTe modifies the valence band structure by pushing the two valence bands (L and Σ bands) closer in energy, thereby facilitating charge carrier injection. When the solubility limit of Mg is exceeded, ubiquitous endotaxial nanostructures form, which when coupled with mesoscale microstructuring results in a very low (lattice) thermal conductivity through all-scaled length phonon scattering. Meanwhile, most significantly, the Mg alloying enlarges the energy gap of conduction band (C band) and light valence band (L …
Total citations
201420152016201720182019202020212022202320242849756783919485696245