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Research Article | Open Access

Preparation and thermoelectric properties of Cu1.8S/CuSbS2 composites

Chunmei TANG, Doudou LIANG, Hezhang LI, Kun LUO, Boping ZHANG()
Beijing Municipal Key Laboratory of New Energy Materials and Technologies, School of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Science and Technology Beijing, Beijing 100083, China
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Abstract

Chalcostibite (CuSbS2) is composed of earth-abundant elements and has a proper band gap (Eg = 1.05 eV) as a thermoelectric (TE) material. Herein, we report the TE properties in the CuSbS2 based composites with a mole ratio of (1-x)CuSbS2-xCu1.8S (x = 0, 0.1, 0.2, 0.3), which were prepared by mechanical alloying (MA) combined with spark plasma sintering (SPS). X-ray diffraction (XRD) and back-scattered electron image (BSE) results indicate that a single phase of CuSbS2 is synthesized at x = 0 and the samples consist of CuSbS2, Cu3SbS4, and Cu12Sb4S13 at 0.1 ≤ x ≤ 0.3. The correlation between the phase structure, microstructure, and TE transport properties of the bulk samples is established. The electrical conductivity increases from 0.14 to 50.66 S·cm-1 at 723 K and at 0 ≤ x ≤ 0.03, while the Seebeck coefficient holds an appropriate value of 190.51 μV·K-1. The highest ZT value of 0.17 is obtained at 723 K and at x = 0.3 owing to the combination of a high PF 183 μW·m-1·K-2 and a low κ 0.8 W·m-1·K-1.

Keywords

CuSbS2phase structureZTthermoelectric

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Journal of Advanced Ceramics
Volume 8 Issue 2,
June 2019
Pages 209-217
DOI: 10.1007/s40145-018-0306-0
Cite this article:
TANG C, LIANG D, LI H, et al. Preparation and thermoelectric properties of Cu1.8S/CuSbS2 composites. Journal of Advanced Ceramics, 2019, 8(2): 209-217. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40145-018-0306-0
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10.1007/s40145-018-0306-0.T001Actual ratio of CuSbS2:Cu3SbS4:Cu12Sb4S13 for the bulk samples with the mole ratio of (1-x)CuSbS2-xCu1.8S at room temperature

SampleCuSbS2:Cu3SbS4:Cu12Sb4S13Theory density (g/cm3)Test density (g/cm3)Relative density (%)
Mole ratioVolume ratio
x = 01:0:01:0:05.00104.127082.52
x = 0.11:0.0273:0.03240.7919:0.0407:0.16744.99174.174083.62
x = 0.21:0.0620:0.09690.5717:0.0668:0.36154.98764.414088.59
x = 0.31:0.1528:0.31890.2968:0.0854:0.61784.98704.212584.47

10.1007/s40145-018-0306-0.T002TE transport properties of bulk samples and second phases at 373 K

SamplePhaseCrystal structureσ (S·cm-1)α (μV·K-1)κ (W·m-1·K-1)ZT
x = 0CuSbS2Orthorhombic0.01930.501.270.0001
x = 0.1CuSbS2+Cu3SbS4+Cu12Sb4S13—0.08470.570.900.0007
x = 0.2CuSbS2+Cu3SbS4+Cu12Sb4S13—6.78122.001.310.0028
x = 0.3CuSbS2+Cu3SbS4+Cu12Sb4S13—76.4188.361.270.0175
—Cu3SbS4 [6]Tetragonal2.01641.881.800.0171
—Cu12Sb4S13 [7]Cubic706.1682.261.090.1635
—Cu1.8S [16]Rhombohedral3353.0522.642.260.0284