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Journal of Advanced Ceramics 2022, 11(11): 1671-1686 https://doi.org/10.1007/s40145-022-0639-6
Research Article | Open Access | Issue | Published: 05 November 2022

Realizing high thermoelectric performance of Cu and Ce co-doped p-type polycrystalline SnSe via inducing nanoprecipitation arrays

Show Author's Information Yi QINa,  Tao XIONGa,b,  Jian-feng ZHUa,  Yan-ling YANGa,  Hong-rui RENb,  Hai-long HEb( ),  Chun-ping NIUb,  Xiao-han LIa,  Me-qian XIEa,  Ting ZHAOa( )
School of Material Science and Engineering, Shaanxi Key Laboratory of Green Preparation and Functionalization for Inorganic Materials, Shaanxi University of Science and Technology, Xi’an 710021, China
State Key Laboratory of Electrical Insulation and Power Equipment, School of Electrical Engineering, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an 710049, China
Keywords:
nanoprecipitation, ultralow thermal conductivity, thermoelectric (TE) performance, polycrystalline stannous selenide (SnSe), Cu and Ce co-doping
Cite this article:
QIN Y, XIONG T, ZHU J-f, et al. Realizing high thermoelectric performance of Cu and Ce co-doped p-type polycrystalline SnSe via inducing nanoprecipitation arrays. Journal of Advanced Ceramics, 2022, 11(11): 1671-1686. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40145-022-0639-6
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Abstract Full text Electronic supplementary material About this article

Thermoelectric (TE) performance of polycrystalline stannous selenide (SnSe) has been remarkably promoted by the strategies of energy band, defect engineering, etc. However, due to the intrinsic insufficiencies of phonon scattering and carrier concentration, it is hard to simultaneously realize the regulations of electrical and thermal transport properties by one simple approach. Herein, we develop Cu and Ce co-doping strategy that can not only greatly reduce lattice thermal conductivity but also improve the electrical transport properties. In this strategy, the incorporated Cu and Ce atoms could induce high-density SnSe2 nanoprecipitation arrays on the surface of SnSe microplate, and produce dopant atom point defects and dislocations in its interior, which form multi-scale phonon scattering synergy, thereby presenting an ultralow thermal conductivity of 0.275 W·m−1·K−1 at 786 K. Meanwhile, density functional theory (DFT) calculations, carrier concentration, and mobility testing reveal that more extra hole carriers and lower conducting carrier scattering generate after Cu and Ce co-doping, thereby improving the electrical conductivity. The co-doped Sn0.98Cu0.01Ce0.01Se bulk exhibits an excellent ZT value up to ~1.2 at 786 K and a high average ZT value of 0.67 from 300 to 786 K. This work provides a simple and convenient strategy of enhancing the TE performance of polycrystalline SnSe.


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Electronic supplementary material
About this article

Realizing high thermoelectric performance of Cu and Ce co-doped p-type polycrystalline SnSe via inducing nanoprecipitation arrays

Show Author's information Yi QINa, Tao XIONGa,b, Jian-feng ZHUa, Yan-ling YANGa, Hong-rui RENb, Hai-long HEb( ), Chun-ping NIUb, Xiao-han LIa, Me-qian XIEa, Ting ZHAOa( )
School of Material Science and Engineering, Shaanxi Key Laboratory of Green Preparation and Functionalization for Inorganic Materials, Shaanxi University of Science and Technology, Xi’an 710021, China
State Key Laboratory of Electrical Insulation and Power Equipment, School of Electrical Engineering, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an 710049, China

Abstract

Thermoelectric (TE) performance of polycrystalline stannous selenide (SnSe) has been remarkably promoted by the strategies of energy band, defect engineering, etc. However, due to the intrinsic insufficiencies of phonon scattering and carrier concentration, it is hard to simultaneously realize the regulations of electrical and thermal transport properties by one simple approach. Herein, we develop Cu and Ce co-doping strategy that can not only greatly reduce lattice thermal conductivity but also improve the electrical transport properties. In this strategy, the incorporated Cu and Ce atoms could induce high-density SnSe2 nanoprecipitation arrays on the surface of SnSe microplate, and produce dopant atom point defects and dislocations in its interior, which form multi-scale phonon scattering synergy, thereby presenting an ultralow thermal conductivity of 0.275 W·m−1·K−1 at 786 K. Meanwhile, density functional theory (DFT) calculations, carrier concentration, and mobility testing reveal that more extra hole carriers and lower conducting carrier scattering generate after Cu and Ce co-doping, thereby improving the electrical conductivity. The co-doped Sn0.98Cu0.01Ce0.01Se bulk exhibits an excellent ZT value up to ~1.2 at 786 K and a high average ZT value of 0.67 from 300 to 786 K. This work provides a simple and convenient strategy of enhancing the TE performance of polycrystalline SnSe.

Keywords: nanoprecipitation, ultralow thermal conductivity, thermoelectric (TE) performance, polycrystalline stannous selenide (SnSe), Cu and Ce co-doping

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Publication history

Received: 27 June 2022
Revised: 09 August 2022
Accepted: 10 August 2022
Published: 05 November 2022
Issue date: November 2022

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© The Author(s) 2022.

Acknowledgements

This work was grateful with the support of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 51702193 and 51502165), the Natural Science Basic Research Program of Shaanxi (Grant No. 2022JM-202), the Shaanxi Provincial Education Department Serves Local Scientific Research Plan (Grant No. 20JC008), the General Project in Industrial Area of Shaanxi Province (Grant No. 2020GY-281), the Natural Science Foundation of Shaanxi Provincial Department of Education (Grant No. 20JK0525), and the Scientific Research Fund of Shaanxi University of Science & Technology (Grant Nos. BJ16-20 and BJ16-21).

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