Issue 38, 2014

Thermoelectric properties of Cu3SbSe3 with intrinsically ultralow lattice thermal conductivity

Abstract

We report the synthesis, characterization and evaluation of the thermoelectric properties of Cu3SbSe3 with a view to explore its utility as an useful thermoelectric material due to its intrinsically low thermal conductivity. Cu3SbSe3 was synthesized employing a solid state reaction process followed by spark plasma sintering, and the synthesized material was extensively characterized for its phase, composition and structure, which suggested formation of a single-phase. The measured electrical transport properties of Cu3SbSe3 indicated p-type conduction in this material. The electrical transport behavior agrees well with that predicted theoretically using first-principle density-functional theory calculations, employing generalized gradient approximation. The measured thermal conductivity was found to be 0.26 W m−1 K−1 at 550 K, which is the lowest reported thus far for Cu3SbSe3 and is among the lowest for state-of-the-art thermoelectric materials. Despite its ultralow thermal conductivity coupled with a moderate Seebeck coefficient, the calculated value of its thermoelectric figure-of-merit was found to be exceptionally low (<0.1), which was primarily attributed to its low electrical conductivity. Nevertheless, it is argued that Cu3SbSe3, due its environmentally-friendly constituent elements, ultralow thermal conductivity and moderate thermopower, could be a potentially useful thermoelectric material as the power factor can be favorably tailored by tuning the carrier concentration using suitable metallic dopants.

Graphical abstract: Thermoelectric properties of Cu3SbSe3 with intrinsically ultralow lattice thermal conductivity

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
23 May 2014
Accepted
17 Jul 2014
First published
22 Jul 2014

J. Mater. Chem. A, 2014,2, 15829-15835

Author version available

Thermoelectric properties of Cu3SbSe3 with intrinsically ultralow lattice thermal conductivity

K. Tyagi, B. Gahtori, S. Bathula, A. K. Srivastava, A. K. Shukla, S. Auluck and A. Dhar, J. Mater. Chem. A, 2014, 2, 15829 DOI: 10.1039/C4TA02590C

To request permission to reproduce material from this article, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements