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Mg3(Bi,Sb)2 single crystals towards high thermoelectric performance
2020, Pan, Yu, Yao, Mengyu, Hong, Xiaochen, Zhu, Yifan, Fan, Fengren, Imasato, Kazuki, He, Yangkun, Hess, Christian, Fink, Jörg, Yang, Jiong, Büchner, Bernd, Fu, Chenguang, Snyder, G. Jeffrey, Felser, Claudia
The rapid growth of the thermoelectric cooler market makes the development of novel room temperature thermoelectric materials of great importance. Ternary n-type Mg3(Bi,Sb)2 alloys are promising alternatives to the state-of-the-art Bi2(Te,Se)3 alloys but grain boundary resistance is the most important limitation. n-type Mg3(Bi,Sb)2 single crystals with negligible grain boundaries are expected to have particularly high zT but have rarely been realized due to the demanding Mg-rich growth conditions required. Here, we report, for the first time, the thermoelectric properties of n-type Mg3(Bi,Sb)2 alloyed single crystals grown by a one-step Mg-flux method using sealed tantalum tubes. High weighted mobility ∼140 cm2 V−1 s−1 and a high zT of 0.82 at 315 K are achieved in Y-doped Mg3Bi1.25Sb0.75 single crystals. Through both experimental angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy and theoretical calculations, we denote the origin of the high thermoelectric performance from a point of view of band widening effect and electronegativity, as well as the necessity to form high Bi/Sb ratio ternary Mg3(Bi,Sb)2 alloys. The present work paves the way for further development of Mg3(Bi,Sb)2 for near room temperature thermoelectric applications.
Unveiling the phonon scattering mechanisms in half-Heusler thermoelectric compounds
2020, He, Ran, Zhu, Taishan, Wang, Yumei, Wolff, Ulrike, Jaud, Jean-Christophe, Sotnikov, Andrei, Potapov, Pavel, Wolf, Daniel, Ying, Pingjun, Wood, Max, Liu, Zhenhui, Feng, Le, Perez Rodriguez, Nicolas, Snyder, G. Jeffrey, Grossman, Jeffrey C., Nielsch, Kornelius, Schierning, Gabi
Half-Heusler (HH) compounds are among the most promising thermoelectric (TE) materials for large-scale applications due to their superior properties such as high power factor, excellent mechanical and thermal reliability, and non-toxicity. Their only drawback is the remaining-high lattice thermal conductivity. Various mechanisms were reported with claimed effectiveness to enhance the phonon scattering of HH compounds including grain-boundary scattering, phase separation, and electron–phonon interaction. In this work, however, we show that point-defect scattering has been the dominant mechanism for phonon scattering other than the intrinsic phonon–phonon interaction for ZrCoSb and possibly many other HH compounds. Induced by the charge-compensation effect, the formation of Co/4d Frenkel point defects is responsible for the drastic reduction of lattice thermal conductivity in ZrCoSb1−xSnx. Our work systematically depicts the phonon scattering profile of HH compounds and illuminates subsequent material optimizations.
Charting lattice thermal conductivity for inorganic crystals and discovering rare earth chalcogenides for thermoelectrics
2021, Zhu, Taishan, He, Ran, Gong, Sheng, Xie, Tian, Gorai, Prashun, Nielsch, Kornelius, Grossman, Jeffrey C.
Thermoelectric power generation represents a promising approach to utilize waste heat. The most effective thermoelectric materials exhibit low thermal conductivity κ. However, less than 5% out of about 105 synthesized inorganic materials are documented with their κ values, while for the remaining 95% κ values are missing and challenging to predict. In this work, by combining graph neural networks and random forest approaches, we predict the thermal conductivity of all known inorganic materials in the Inorganic Crystal Structure Database, and chart the structural chemistry of κ into extended van-Arkel triangles. Together with the newly developed κ map and our theoretical tool, we identify rare-earth chalcogenides as promising candidates, of which we measured ZT exceeding 1.0. We note that the κ chart can be further explored, and our computational and analytical tools are applicable generally for materials informatics.