Issue 11, 2023

Multi-beam spark plasma sintering and excellent performance of Bi0.5Sb1.5Te3/epoxy thermoelectric films with insulating substrates

Abstract

Fabricating high-performance large-size thermoelectric (TE) films with insulating substrates remains a major bottleneck for high-efficiency TE cooling in-plane heat dissipation. Herein, we have developed a multi-beam spark plasma sintering (MB-SPS) technology and used it to successfully prepare a series of high-performance large-size Bi0.5Sb1.5Te3/epoxy (BST/EP) TE films with insulating substrates (MB-BST/EP films). We found that the {000l} preferential orientation factor of BST in the MB-BST/EP films is about 69%, increased by 72.5% as compared with that of conventional SPS BST/EP films (C-BST/EP films), thus achieving remarkable enhancement in their electrical transport properties. The maximum power factor of the MB-BST/EP films is about 2.47 mW m−1 K−2 at 300 K. The maximum dimensionless figure of merit (zT) of the MB-BST/EP film without a substrate and MB-BST/EP film with an insulating substrate are about 0.91@350 K and 1.38@340 K, respectively. The maximum cooling temperature difference of the single-leg device fabricated with the MB-BST/EP film is about 1.7 K, an increase of 2.4 times as compared with that of the device fabricated with the C-BST/EP film. In particular, the microstructures and electrical transport properties of the MB-BST/EP films are almost the same over a large-size area of 25 mm in diameter. Our work demonstrates that the MB-SPS provides an effective approach to prepare high-performance large-size TE cooling films with an insulating substrate.

Graphical abstract: Multi-beam spark plasma sintering and excellent performance of Bi0.5Sb1.5Te3/epoxy thermoelectric films with insulating substrates

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
07 Aug 2023
Accepted
02 Oct 2023
First published
04 Oct 2023

Energy Environ. Sci., 2023,16, 5434-5443

Multi-beam spark plasma sintering and excellent performance of Bi0.5Sb1.5Te3/epoxy thermoelectric films with insulating substrates

S. Ke, D. Liang, X. Nie, X. Ai, L. Li, C. Liu, W. Xu, W. Cui, X. Ye, T. Chen, X. Li, K. Fu, W. Zhu, P. Wei, W. Zhao and Q. Zhang, Energy Environ. Sci., 2023, 16, 5434 DOI: 10.1039/D3EE02604C

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