Issue 4, 2023

Carrier-filtering and phonon-blocking AgSnSe2-decorated grain boundaries to boost the thermoelectric performance of Cu2Sn0.9Co0.1S3

Abstract

Heavily co-doped Cu2SnS3 can achieve a high power factor by relying on a high electrical conductivity (σ), which subsequently limits the ZT value with a large electronic thermal conductivity (κe). We report here an enhanced ZT for Cu2Sn0.9Co0.1S3 decorated with micro-nanoscale AgSnSe2 along grain boundaries. The AgSnSe2 phase served as a charge carrier filter by ionized impurity scattering, with a noticeable bottoming out of carrier mobility and a rapid increase in the Seebeck coefficient as the temperature increased from 423 to 573 K, which properly reduced the large σ and κe while maintaining a high power factor of approximately 10 μW cm−1 K−2 at 773 K. Lattice thermal conductivity was markedly suppressed, and a low total thermal conductivity was obtained with strengthened phonon scattering by the AgSnSe2 phase as a phonon barrier. With the synergistic effects on electrical and thermal transport, a maximum ZT of 0.93 at 773 K was achieved in Cu2Sn0.9Co0.1S3–3 wt% AgSnSe2.

Graphical abstract: Carrier-filtering and phonon-blocking AgSnSe2-decorated grain boundaries to boost the thermoelectric performance of Cu2Sn0.9Co0.1S3

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
13 Oct 2022
Accepted
01 Dec 2022
First published
13 Dec 2022

Nanoscale, 2023,15, 1695-1701

Carrier-filtering and phonon-blocking AgSnSe2-decorated grain boundaries to boost the thermoelectric performance of Cu2Sn0.9Co0.1S3

J. Chen, Y. Gu, H. Zhou, L. Pan, Y. Wang, C. Wan and S. He, Nanoscale, 2023, 15, 1695 DOI: 10.1039/D2NR05699B

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