Concerted Rattling in CsAg5Te3Leading to Ultralow Thermal Conductivity and High Thermoelectric Performance

Hua Lin; Gangjian Tan; Jin Ni Shen; Shiqiang Hao; Li Ming Wu; Nicholas Calta; Christos Malliakas; Si Wang; Ctirad Uher; Christopher Wolverton; Mercouri G. Kanatzidis

doi:10.1002/anie.201605015

Concerted Rattling in CsAg₅Te₃Leading to Ultralow Thermal Conductivity and High Thermoelectric Performance

Hua Lin, Gangjian Tan, Jin Ni Shen, Shiqiang Hao, Li Ming Wu^*, Nicholas Calta, Christos Malliakas, Si Wang, Ctirad Uher, Christopher Wolverton, Mercouri G. Kanatzidis

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

193 Scopus citations

Abstract

Thermoelectric (TE) materials convert heat energy directly into electricity, and introducing new materials with high conversion efficiency is a great challenge because of the rare combination of interdependent electrical and thermal transport properties required to be present in a single material. The TE efficiency is defined by the figure of merit ZT=(S²σ) T/κ, where S is the Seebeck coefficient, σ is the electrical conductivity, κ is the total thermal conductivity, and T is the absolute temperature. A new p-type thermoelectric material, CsAg₅Te₃, is presented that exhibits ultralow lattice thermal conductivity (ca. 0.18 Wm⁻¹K⁻¹) and a high figure of merit of about 1.5 at 727 K. The lattice thermal conductivity is the lowest among state-of-the-art thermoelectrics; it is attributed to a previously unrecognized phonon scattering mechanism that involves the concerted rattling of a group of Ag ions that strongly raises the Grüneisen parameters of the material.

Original language	English (US)
Pages (from-to)	11431-11436
Number of pages	6
Journal	Angewandte Chemie - International Edition
Volume	55
Issue number	38
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1002/anie.201605015
State	Published - Sep 12 2016

Funding

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Projects (21571020, 20973175, 21233009, 21301175, 21225104, and 91422303) and the NSF of Fujian Province (No. 2015J01071). At Northwestern this work (sample preparation, thermoelectric measurements, DFT calculations) was supported by the Department of Energy, Office of Science Basic Energy Sciences grant DE-SC0014520.

Keywords

CsAgTe
concerted rattling
thermoelectric materials
tunnel structure
ultralow thermal conductivity

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Catalysis
General Chemistry

Access to Document

10.1002/anie.201605015

Cite this

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title = "Concerted Rattling in CsAg5Te3Leading to Ultralow Thermal Conductivity and High Thermoelectric Performance",

abstract = "Thermoelectric (TE) materials convert heat energy directly into electricity, and introducing new materials with high conversion efficiency is a great challenge because of the rare combination of interdependent electrical and thermal transport properties required to be present in a single material. The TE efficiency is defined by the figure of merit ZT=(S2σ) T/κ, where S is the Seebeck coefficient, σ is the electrical conductivity, κ is the total thermal conductivity, and T is the absolute temperature. A new p-type thermoelectric material, CsAg5Te3, is presented that exhibits ultralow lattice thermal conductivity (ca. 0.18 Wm−1K−1) and a high figure of merit of about 1.5 at 727 K. The lattice thermal conductivity is the lowest among state-of-the-art thermoelectrics; it is attributed to a previously unrecognized phonon scattering mechanism that involves the concerted rattling of a group of Ag ions that strongly raises the Gr{\"u}neisen parameters of the material.",

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author = "Hua Lin and Gangjian Tan and Shen, {Jin Ni} and Shiqiang Hao and Wu, {Li Ming} and Nicholas Calta and Christos Malliakas and Si Wang and Ctirad Uher and Christopher Wolverton and Kanatzidis, {Mercouri G.}",

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AU - Hao, Shiqiang

AU - Wu, Li Ming

AU - Calta, Nicholas

AU - Malliakas, Christos

AU - Wang, Si

AU - Uher, Ctirad

AU - Wolverton, Christopher

AU - Kanatzidis, Mercouri G.

PY - 2016/9/12

Y1 - 2016/9/12

N2 - Thermoelectric (TE) materials convert heat energy directly into electricity, and introducing new materials with high conversion efficiency is a great challenge because of the rare combination of interdependent electrical and thermal transport properties required to be present in a single material. The TE efficiency is defined by the figure of merit ZT=(S2σ) T/κ, where S is the Seebeck coefficient, σ is the electrical conductivity, κ is the total thermal conductivity, and T is the absolute temperature. A new p-type thermoelectric material, CsAg5Te3, is presented that exhibits ultralow lattice thermal conductivity (ca. 0.18 Wm−1K−1) and a high figure of merit of about 1.5 at 727 K. The lattice thermal conductivity is the lowest among state-of-the-art thermoelectrics; it is attributed to a previously unrecognized phonon scattering mechanism that involves the concerted rattling of a group of Ag ions that strongly raises the Grüneisen parameters of the material.

AB - Thermoelectric (TE) materials convert heat energy directly into electricity, and introducing new materials with high conversion efficiency is a great challenge because of the rare combination of interdependent electrical and thermal transport properties required to be present in a single material. The TE efficiency is defined by the figure of merit ZT=(S2σ) T/κ, where S is the Seebeck coefficient, σ is the electrical conductivity, κ is the total thermal conductivity, and T is the absolute temperature. A new p-type thermoelectric material, CsAg5Te3, is presented that exhibits ultralow lattice thermal conductivity (ca. 0.18 Wm−1K−1) and a high figure of merit of about 1.5 at 727 K. The lattice thermal conductivity is the lowest among state-of-the-art thermoelectrics; it is attributed to a previously unrecognized phonon scattering mechanism that involves the concerted rattling of a group of Ag ions that strongly raises the Grüneisen parameters of the material.

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