Atomic-level control of the thermoelectric properties in polytypoid nanowires

Abstract

Thermoelectric materials have generated interest as a means of increasing the efficiency of power generation through the scavenging of waste heat. Materials containing nanometer-sized structural and compositional features can exhibit enhanced thermoelectric performance due to the decoupling of certain electrical and thermal properties, but the extent to which these features can be controlled is often limited. Here we report a simple synthesis of M₂O₃(ZnO)_n (M = In, Ga, Fe) nanowires with controllable polytypoid structures, where the nanostructured features are tuned by adjusting the amount of metal precursor. After the introduction of nanometer-scale features (individual atomic layers and alloying), thermal and electrical measurements on single In_2-xGa_xO₃(ZnO)_n nanowires reveal a simultaneous improvement in all contributing factors to the thermoelectric figure of merit, indicating successful modification of the nanowire transport properties.