Enhanced thermopower in rock-salt SnTe–CdTe from band convergence

He, Jun; Xu, Jingtao; Liu, Guoqiang; Shao, Hezhu; Tan, Xiaojian; Li, Zhu; Xu, Jiaqiang; Jiang, Haochuan; Jiang, Jun

doi:10.1039/c6ra02658c

Cited by 76 publications

(66 citation statements)

References 37 publications

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“…Successful strategies for enhancing the thermoelectric performance of SnTe have been typified by alloying with MgTe, MnTe, CdTe and by resonant doping . Available literatures show that a formation of SnTe solid solutions with monotellurides effectively decreases the energy separation between bands L and Σ for an improvement in electronic performance and the resultant high‐concentration alloy defects enable a simultaneous deduction in lattice thermoelectric conductivity.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…[13b,22a] All these approaches lead to a well‐improved zT in SnTe, particularly when multiple approaches are integrated. [22a,24c,25b,26]…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Moreover, a third band along Λ line having a large N v of 8 tends to be effective once the energy of L can be further reduced. [23,24b,28] Αs single‐phase matrix materials, SnTe–MnTe alloys with a MnTe concentration close to its solubility,[23a] indeed show the most promising thermoelectric performance, and a further attempt on introducing interstitial defects for additional κ L ‐reduction successfully realizes a very high zT . [26a] However, there is no indication that if the thermoelectric performance can be further improved once the MnTe concentration is further increased.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Manipulation of Band Structure and Interstitial Defects for Improving Thermoelectric SnTe

Tang

Gao

Lin

et al. 2018

Adv Funct Materials

186

166

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Many efforts are recently devoted on improving thermoelectric SnTe as an environment-friendly alternative to conventional PbTe and successful approaches include valence band convergence, nanostructuring, and substantial/interstitial defects. Among these strategies, alloying SnTe with MnTe enables the most effective reduction in the valence band offset (between L and Σ) for a convergence due to its high solubility of ≈15%, yet there is no indication that the solubility of MnTe is high enough for fully optimizing the valence band structure and thus for maximizing the electronic performance. Here, a strategy is shown to increase the MnTe solubility up to ≈25% by alloying with 5% GeTe, which successfully locates the composition (20% MnTe) to optimize the valence band structure by converging a more degenerated Λ (as compared with band L) and Σ valence bands. Through a further alloying with Cu 2 Te, the resultant Cu-interstitial defects enable a sufficient reduction in lattice thermal conductivity to its amorphous limit (0.4 W m −1 K −1 ). These electronic and thermal effects successfully realize a record-high thermoelectric figure of merit, zT of 1.8, strongly competing with that of PbTe. This work demonstrates the validity of band manipulation and interstitial defects for realizing extraordinary thermoelectric performance in SnTe.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…[13b,22a] All these approaches lead to a well‐improved zT in SnTe, particularly when multiple approaches are integrated. [22a,24c,25b,26]…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Manipulation of Band Structure and Interstitial Defects for Improving Thermoelectric SnTe

Tang

Gao

Lin

et al. 2018

Adv Funct Materials

186

166

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“…Greatly inspired by the successful strategies for zT enhancements realized in PbTe with alloying, monotelluride solutes such as MnTe, MgTe, CdTe, CaTe, and HgTe are found to successfully minimize the ∆ E L‐∑ for an electronic improvement of SnTe. Among these solutes, MnTe is found to be one of the most effective for maximizing the valence band degeneracy ( N v ) due to its high solubility of ~15 at% .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Unfortunately, compared with PbTe, SnTe shows a much larger ΔE L-Σ of 12 to 15 k B T at room temperature, 51 and the lighter atomic mass leads to a much higher lattice thermal conductivity. 37,52 Eventually, pristine SnTe even with an optimal carrier concentration shows a peak zT of only 0.6 at 700 K. 53 Greatly inspired by the successful strategies for zT enhancements realized in PbTe with alloying, monotelluride solutes such as MnTe, 37,54,55 MgTe, [56][57][58] CdTe, [59][60][61] CaTe, 62 and HgTe 63 are found to successfully minimize the ΔE L-Σ for an electronic improvement of SnTe. Among these solutes, MnTe is found to be one of the most effective for maximizing the valence band degeneracy (N v ) due to its high solubility of~15 at%.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Solute manipulation enabled band and defect engineering for thermoelectric enhancements of SnTe

Yao

Tang

et al. 2019

InfoMat

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With years of development, SnTe as a homologue of PbTe has shown great potential for thermoelectric applications in p‐type conduction, and the most successful strategy is typified by alloying for maximizing the valence band degeneracy. Among the known alloy agents, MnTe has been found to be one of the most effective enabling a band convergence for an enhancement in electronic performance of SnTe, yet its solubility of only ~15 at% unfortunately prevents a full optimization in the valence band structure. This work reveals that additional PbTe alloying not only promotes the MnTe solubility to locate the optimal valence band structure but also increases the overall substitutional defects in the material for a substantial reduction in lattice thermal conductivity. In addition, PbTe alloying simultaneously optimizes the carrier concentration due to the cation size effect. These features all enabled by such a solute manipulation synergistically lead to a very high thermoelectric figure of merit, zT of ~1.5 in SnTe with a 20 at% MnTe and a 30 at% PbTe alloying (Sn0.5Mn0.2Pb0.3Te), demonstrating the effectiveness of solute manipulation for advancing SnTe and similar thermoelectrics.

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Eco‐Friendly SnTe Thermoelectric Materials: Progress and Future Challenges

Moshwan

Yang

Zou

et al. 2017

Adv Funct Materials

321

260

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As a key type of emerging thermoelectric material, tin telluride (SnTe) has received extensive attention because of its low toxicity and eco-friendly nature. The recent trend shows that band engineering and nanostructuring can enhance thermoelectric performance of SnTe as intermediate temperature (400-800 K) thermoelectrics, which provides an alternative for toxic PbTe with the same operational temperature. This review highlights the key strategies to enhance the thermoelectric performance of SnTe materials through band engineering, carrier concentration optimization, synergistic engineering, and structure design. A fundamental analysis elucidates the underpinnings for the property improvement. This comprehensive review will boost the relevant research with a view to work on further performance enhancement of SnTe materials.where k B , e, h, m*, µ, and L are the Boltzmann constant, the carrier charge, the Planck's constant, the effective mass of the charge carrier, the carrier mobility, and the Lorenz number, respectively. As can be seen, S, σ, and κ e are interacted and conflict, which raises the difficulty to obtain high ZT. To solve these conflicts, extensive research has been carried out through band engineering to optimize S and σ, [5][6][7] and structuring to reduce the κ l . [8][9][10][11][12] Figure 1a summarizes recent significant achievements in different thermoelectric materials including SnSe, [25] 3%Na-(PbTe) 0.8 (PbS) 0.2 , [70] Cu 2 S 0.5 Te 0.5 , [71] and GeSbTe. [72] As can be seen, the current ZT values of the thermoelectric materials lie between 1 and 2, [7,[13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23] resulting in the fact that the current thermoelectric energy conversion efficiency is comparable to the other energy conversion technologies, such as photovoltaic cells, [22] and solar thermal plants. [22] Considerable research has been continuing to further drive ZT higher than 2 with the predicted efficiency over 20%, [24,25] which can attract highly exciting prospect in the energy generation and conservation fields.In terms of the industrial and automotive applications, waste heats are generally produced in the temperature range of 500-900 K. [26][27][28] To recover such waste heats, developing high-performance mid-temperature (400-900 K) thermoelectric materials is highly desired. For this purpose, lead telluride (PbTe) and its alloys have been considered as a primary material system. [7,10,14,17,29] However, the toxicity associated with Pb causes severe threat to the environment and needs to be alternated for domestic usage. [30] Hence, as its analog, tin telluride (SnTe) [21,[30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40][41][42][43][44] with the rock-salt crystal structure has been inspired with great interests. [32] Especially, SnTe is nontoxic, earth-abundant, and environment friendly, [45] which makes it

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Enhanced thermopower in rock-salt SnTe–CdTe from band convergence

Cited by 76 publications

References 37 publications

Manipulation of Band Structure and Interstitial Defects for Improving Thermoelectric SnTe

Manipulation of Band Structure and Interstitial Defects for Improving Thermoelectric SnTe

Solute manipulation enabled band and defect engineering for thermoelectric enhancements of SnTe

Eco‐Friendly SnTe Thermoelectric Materials: Progress and Future Challenges

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