@article{0a96abfb8f254202ac07a8b3ff489713,
title = "Melt-centrifuged (Bi,Sb)2Te3: Engineering microstructure toward high thermoelectric efficiency",
abstract = "Microstructure engineering is an effective strategy to reduce lattice thermal conductivity (κl) and enhance the thermoelectric figure of merit (zT). Through a new process based on melt-centrifugation to squeeze out excess eutectic liquid, microstructure modulation is realized to manipulate the formation of dislocations and clean grain boundaries, resulting in a porous network with a platelet structure. In this way, phonon transport is strongly disrupted by a combination of porosity, pore surfaces/junctions, grain boundaries, and lattice dislocations. These collectively result in a ≈60% reduction of κl compared to zone melted ingot, while the charge carriers remain relatively mobile across the liquid-fused grains. This porous material displays a zT value of 1.2, which is higher than fully dense conventional zone melted ingots and hot pressed (Bi,Sb)2Te3 alloys. A segmented leg of melt-centrifuged Bi0.5Sb1.5Te3 and Bi0.3Sb1.7Te3 could produce a high device ZT exceeding 1.0 over the whole temperature range of 323–523 K and an efficiency up to 9%. The present work demonstrates a method for synthesizing high-efficiency porous thermoelectric materials through an unconventional melt-centrifugation technique.",
keywords = "Dislocation, Liquid phase sintering, Melt-centrifugation, P-type bismuth-antimony-telluride, Thermoelectric",
author = "Yu Pan and Umut Aydemir and Grovogui, {Jann A.} and Witting, {Ian T.} and Riley Hanus and Yaobin Xu and Jinsong Wu and Wu, {Chao Feng} and Sun, {Fu Hua} and Zhuang, {Hua Lu} and Dong, {Jin Feng} and Li, {Jing Feng} and Dravid, {Vinayak P.} and Snyder, {G. Jeffrey}",
note = "Funding Information: This work was supported by the Basic Science Center Project of NSFC under grant No.51788104 and the NSFC project No.11474176, as well as the Solid-State Solar-Thermal Energy Conversion Center (S3TEC), an Energy Frontier Research Center, funded by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Basic Energy Sciences (DE-SC0001299 and DE-SC0014520). This work made use of the EPIC facility of Northwestern University's NUANCE Center, which has received support from the Soft and Hybrid Nanotechnology Experimental (SHyNE) Resource (NSF ECCS-1542205); the MRSEC program (NSF DMR-1121262) at the Materials Research Center; the International Institute for Nanotechnology (IIN); the Keck Foundation; and the State of Illinois, through the IIN. This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship under Grant No. DGE-1324585. Any opinion, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation. Y. P. would like to acknowledge the Chinese Scholarship Council (CSC) for her scholarship in Northwestern University. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2018 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.",
year = "2018",
month = aug,
doi = "10.1002/adma.201802016",
language = "English (US)",
volume = "30",
journal = "Advanced Materials",
issn = "0935-9648",
publisher = "Wiley-VCH Verlag",
number = "34",
}