Developing high performance n‐type thermoelectric (TE) materials is fundamentally important for developing high efficiency TE devices. AgBiSe2, which reveals superior n‐type TE performance in a cubic phase, crystallizes in a hexagonal phase at room temperature, and typically, undergoes phase transitions to a cubic phase at a temperature above 580 K. Here, for the first time, through entropy optimization with lead‐selenides (≥9.9 mol%), the high‐temperature cubic phase of AgBiSe2 is stabilized from 300 to 800 K. Furthermore, the AgBiSe2‐PbSe pseudo‐binary diagram is established. The resultant alloys with optimized entropy possess unique local distorted cubic lattices, which contribute low lattice thermal conductivity approaching 0.3 W m−1 K−1 in extended operating temperature range. Consequently, a peak figure of merit zT value of ≈0.8 at 800 K and a record‐high average zT value of 0.42 for n‐type I‐V‐VI2 compounds are attained in pure phase cubic n‐type (AgBiSe2)1−x(PbSe)x solid solutions. These results pave the way for developing new TE materials via entropy engineering.
A combination of high yield strength (1.1 GPa) and large tensile elongation to failure (28%) is achieved in a HfNbTiV refractory high-entropy alloy by creating modulated nanoscale inhomogeneity in both composition and lattice strain.
Various single-atom materials exhibit distinguished performances in catalysis and biology. To boost their applications, single-atom-based strategies are highly demanded to exhibit repeatable functions on advanced wearable substrates. However, single-atom approaches are rarely reported to anchor on wearable materials, i.e., widely applied cotton fabrics. Here, we developed a simple method of loading uniformly dispersed single tungsten atoms on cotton via ordinary direct-dye processing to exhibit superior sustainable functions. The single sites of tungsten atom centers are constructed by binding oxygen-coordinated single tungsten atom on the cotton fabric surface via −COOH groups. Consequently, the band gap of single sites decreases significantly to 2.75 from 3.03 eV. Therefore, the singlesite-modified cotton exhibits excellent visible-light-driven (>420 nm) photocatalytic degradation efficiency of organic dyes, which exceeds other reported cotton-based materials by nearly two orders of magnitude. Furthermore, the single-site-modified cotton also exhibits great antibacterial performance due to reactive oxygen species. Moreover, the cotton with anchored single sites possesses great washing-resistance ability during 20 laundry cycles under soap-washing conditions. After recycling, the single sites on cotton have no obvious changes in the microstructure, which demonstrates the success of our sustainable strategy of single sites anchored on cotton. The single-site technique can be extended to many other elemental atoms on various wearable devices, providing a playground for functional material communities.
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