Issue 10, 2019

Realization of higher thermoelectric performance by dynamic doping of copper in n-type PbTe

Abstract

It is a great challenge to optimize a material's thermoelectric performance due to the strong correlation between its thermoelectric-transport properties, especially the electrical-transport properties. Optimizing the peak zT using a constant carrier concentration is commonly adopted because of the difficulty in realizing the optimum temperature-dependent carrier concentration, but this is not meaningful for real applications, in which the average zT value over the working temperature range is much more important. Here we propose an effective strategy involving the dynamic doping effect of interstitial Cu atoms to fully optimize the electrical-transport properties of n-type PbTe over a wide temperature range. By using Cu intercalation, the temperature-dependent carrier concentration of PbTe is found to well match the theoretically optimal profile. Furthermore, high carrier mobility is largely maintained because the dynamic behavior of the interstitial Cu does not alter the band structure and therefore change the effective mass. Consequently, a peak zT of ∼1.3 and a calculated leg efficiency of 12% were achieved for the sample with 0.2 at% Cu. Based on our findings, we further proposed a concept of ‘interstitial engineering’ to reinforce the dynamic doping effect, which is of fundamental importance for optimizing the thermoelectric properties.

Graphical abstract: Realization of higher thermoelectric performance by dynamic doping of copper in n-type PbTe

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
06 Mar 2019
Accepted
19 Aug 2019
First published
19 Aug 2019

Energy Environ. Sci., 2019,12, 3089-3098

Author version available

Realization of higher thermoelectric performance by dynamic doping of copper in n-type PbTe

L. You, J. Zhang, S. Pan, Y. Jiang, K. Wang, J. Yang, Y. Pei, Q. Zhu, M. T. Agne, G. J. Snyder, Z. Ren, W. Zhang and J. Luo, Energy Environ. Sci., 2019, 12, 3089 DOI: 10.1039/C9EE01137D

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