Issue 44, 2018

Thermoelectric transport properties of rock-salt SnSe: first-principles investigation

Abstract

Recently, orthorhombic SnSe has aroused extensive attention due to its promising thermoelectric performance. Using first-principles calculations, we investigate the thermoelectric transport properties of SnSe with a rock-salt structure, which is a common structure for these state-of-the-art thermoelectrics, PbQ (Q = Te, Se, S) and SnTe. Firstly, we calculated the phonon spectrum and elastic constant, which justify the thermodynamic and mechanic stability. We found that rock-salt SnSe possesses low lattice thermal conductivity, which can be well interpreted using the calculated phonon spectrum and mean free path. The electrical transport properties are discussed based on the electronic band structure of rock-salt SnSe. The results show that the maximum ZT values are ∼0.85 (∼900 K) and ∼0.82 (∼700 K) for p- and n-type rock-salt SnSe, respectively. The ZTave values are ∼0.54 (9.0 × 1019 cm−3) and ∼0.67 (8.0 × 1019 cm−3) at 300–900 K for p- and n-type rock-salt SnSe, respectively. Our results indicate that rock-salt SnSe is a promising thermoelectric material.

Graphical abstract: Thermoelectric transport properties of rock-salt SnSe: first-principles investigation

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
19 mars 2018
Accepted
30 avr. 2018
First published
02 mai 2018

J. Mater. Chem. C, 2018,6, 12016-12022

Thermoelectric transport properties of rock-salt SnSe: first-principles investigation

D. Wang, W. He, C. Chang, G. Wang, J. Wang and L. Zhao, J. Mater. Chem. C, 2018, 6, 12016 DOI: 10.1039/C8TC01314D

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