Microstructure Engineered Multiphase Tellurides with Enhanced Thermoelectric Efficiency

Abstract

Thermoelectricity is one of the most important and extensively researched ways to recycle the waste heat and provide an efficient energy conversion without involving any movable parts.Multiphase thermoelectrics (TEs) are found to be better contender than single-phase TEs, owing to their freedom to tune the interface, phase assemblage, defects, and so on. These engineered microstructural features and atomic arrangements result in a significant effect on the electronic and thermal transport in these materials. Moreover, the tellurides among the chalcogenides have gained a lot of attention for their applicability as room-to-medium temperature range TE materials. In the present work, the recent advancements in the multiphase TEs based on tellurium are reviewed. Thus, the review focuses on some interesting ternary systems (Ag-Bi-Te, Bi-Cu-Te, Bi-Ga-Te, Bi-In-Te, Ga-In-Te, and Sn-Ga-Te) of the Ag-Bi-In-Ga-Sn-Te multicomponent system. The recent advancements in the phase diagram engineering, microstructure evolution, processing conditions, and role of these techniques in optimising the TE performance of multiphase materials belonging to the above-mentioned ternary systems have been discussed.