Issue 9, 2011

Combination of large nanostructures and complex band structure for high performance thermoelectric lead telluride

Abstract

The complexity of the valence band structure in p-type PbTe has been shown to enable a significant enhancement of the average thermoelectric figure of merit (zT) when heavily doped with Na. It has also been shown that when PbTe is nanostructured with large nanometer sized Ag2Te precipitates there is an enhancement of zT due to phonon scattering at the interfaces. The enhancement in zT resulting from these two mechanisms is of similar magnitude but, in principle, decoupled from one another. This work experimentally demonstrates a successful combination of the complexity in the valence band structure with the addition of nanostructuring to create a high performance thermoelectric material. These effects lead to a high zT over a wide temperature range with peak zT > 1.5 at T > 650 K in Na-doped PbTe/Ag2Te. This high average zT produces 30% higher efficiency (300–750 K) than pure Na-doped PbTe because of the nanostructures, while the complex valence band structure leads to twice the efficiency as the related n-type La-doped PbTe/Ag2Te without such band structure complexity.

Graphical abstract: Combination of large nanostructures and complex band structure for high performance thermoelectric lead telluride

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
09 Jun 2011
Accepted
11 Jul 2011
First published
29 Jul 2011

Energy Environ. Sci., 2011,4, 3640-3645

Combination of large nanostructures and complex band structure for high performance thermoelectric lead telluride

Y. Pei, N. A. Heinz, A. LaLonde and G. J. Snyder, Energy Environ. Sci., 2011, 4, 3640 DOI: 10.1039/C1EE01928G

To request permission to reproduce material from this article, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements