High Thermoelectric Performance in Polycrystalline SnSe Via Dual-Doping with Ag/Na and Nanostructuring With Ag8SnSe6

Yubo Luo, Songting Cai, Xia Hua, Haijie Chen, Qinghua Liang, Chengfeng Du, Yun Zheng, Junhua Shen, Jianwei Xu, Chris Wolverton, Vinayak P. Dravid, Qingyu Yan*, Mercouri G. Kanatzidis

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

115 Scopus citations

Abstract

Single crystalline SnSe is one of the most intriguing new thermoelectric materials but the thermoelectric performance of polycrystalline SnSe seems to lag significantly compared to that of a single crystal. Here an effective strategy for enhancing the thermoelectric performance of p-type polycrystalline SnSe by Ag/Na dual-doping and Ag8SnSe6 (STSe) nanoprecipitates is reported. The Ag/Na dual-doping leads to a two orders of magnitude increase in carrier concentration and a convergence of valence bands (VBM1 and VBM5), which in turn results in sharp enhancement of electrical conductivities and high Seebeck coefficients in the Ag/Na dual-doped samples. Additionally, the SnSe matrix becomes nanostructured with dispersed nanoprecipitates of the compound Ag8SnSe6, which further strengthens the scattering of phonons. Specifically, ≈20% reduction in the already ultralow lattice thermal conductivity is realized for the Sn0.99Na0.01Se–STSe sample at 773 K compared to the thermal conductivity of pure SnSe. Consequently, a peak thermoelectric figure of merit ZT of 1.33 at 773 K with a high average ZT (ZTave) value of 0.91 (423–823 K) is achieved for the Sn0.99Na0.01Se–STSe sample.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Article number1803072
JournalAdvanced Energy Materials
Volume9
Issue number2
DOIs
StatePublished - Jan 10 2019

Funding

This work was supported by the Department of Energy, Office of Science Basic Energy Sciences under grant DE-SC0014520, DOE Office of Science (sample preparation, synthesis, XRD, TE measurements, TEM measurements, DFT calculations). This work made use of the EPIC facilities of Northwestern’s NUANCE Center, which received support from the Soft and Hybrid Nanotechnology Experimental (SHyNE) Resource (NSF ECCS-1542205); the MRSEC program (NSF DMR-1720139) at the Materials Research Center; the International Institute for Nanotechnology (IIN); the Keck Foundation; and the State of Illinois, through the IIN. User Facilities were supported by the Office of Science of the U.S. Department of Energy under Contract No. DE-AC02-06CH11357 and DE-AC02-05CH11231. Access to facilities of high performance computational resources at the Northwestern University is acknowledged. The authors also acknowledge National Natural Science Foundation of China (61728401), Singapore MOE AcRF Tier 1 under Grant Nos. 2016-T1-002-065, Singapore MOE Tier 2, 2018-T2-010, Singapore A*STAR Pharos Program SERC 1527200021 and 1527200022, the support from FACTs of Nanyang Technological University for sample analysis. This work was supported by the Department of Energy, Office of Science Basic Energy Sciences under grant DE-SC0014520, DOE Office of Science (sample preparation, synthesis, XRD, TE measurements, TEM measurements, DFT calculations). This work made use of the EPIC facilities of Northwestern's NUANCE Center, which received support from the Soft and Hybrid Nanotechnology Experimental (SHyNE) Resource (NSF ECCS-1542205); the MRSEC program (NSF DMR-1720139) at the Materials Research Center; the International Institute for Nanotechnology (IIN); the Keck Foundation; and the State of Illinois, through the IIN. User Facilities were supported by the Office of Science of the U.S. Department of Energy under Contract No. DE-AC02-06CH11357 and DE-AC02-05CH11231. Access to facilities of high performance computational resources at the Northwestern University is acknowledged. The authors also acknowledge National Natural Science Foundation of China (61728401), Singapore MOE AcRF Tier 1 under Grant Nos. 2016-T1-002-065, Singapore MOE Tier 2, 2018-T2-010, Singapore A*STAR Pharos Program SERC 1527200021 and 1527200022, the support from FACTs of Nanyang Technological University for sample analysis.

Keywords

  • AgSnSe
  • SnSe
  • dual-doping
  • nanostructuring
  • thermoelectrics

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Renewable Energy, Sustainability and the Environment
  • General Materials Science

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