Issue 1, 2016

Reduction of thermal conductivity through nanostructuring enhances the thermoelectric figure of merit in Ge1−xBixTe

Abstract

A promising thermoelectric figure of merit, zT, of ∼1.3 at 725 K was obtained in high quality crystalline ingots of Ge1−xBixTe. The substitution of Bi3+ in a Ge2+ sublattice of GeTe significantly reduces the excess hole concentration due to the aliovalent donor dopant nature of Bi3+. Reduction in carrier density optimizes electrical conductivity, and subsequently enhances the Seebeck coefficient in Ge1−xBixTe. More importantly, a low lattice thermal conductivity of ∼1.1 W m−1 K−1 for Ge0.90Bi0.10Te was achieved, which is due to the collective phonon scattering from meso-structured grain boundaries, nano-structured precipitates, nano-scale defect layers, and solid solution point defects. We have obtained a reasonably high mechanical stability for the Ge1−xBixTe samples. The measured Vickers microhardness value of the high performance sample is ∼165 HV, which is comparatively higher than that of state-of-the-art thermoelectric materials, such as PbTe, Bi2Te3, and Cu2Se.

Graphical abstract: Reduction of thermal conductivity through nanostructuring enhances the thermoelectric figure of merit in Ge1−xBixTe

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Research Article
Submitted
31 10 2015
Accepted
17 11 2015
First published
18 11 2015

Inorg. Chem. Front., 2016,3, 125-132

Reduction of thermal conductivity through nanostructuring enhances the thermoelectric figure of merit in Ge1−xBixTe

S. Perumal, S. Roychowdhury and K. Biswas, Inorg. Chem. Front., 2016, 3, 125 DOI: 10.1039/C5QI00230C

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