Texturing degree boosts thermoelectric performance of silver-doped polycrystalline SnSe

Abstract

Tin selenite (SnSe) has attracted significant attention due to its record thermoelectric figure of merit (ZT = 2.6 at 923 K) of its single crystal. However, the polycrystalline SnSe processes considerably less ZTs (⩽1.1). In this study, we investigate the thermoelectric properties of Ag-doped polycrystalline SnSe, which was synthesized via zone melting and hot pressing. By comparing our results and previous reports of Ag-doped single crystals and polycrystals, we determine that the high texturing degree is essential for achieving good thermoelectric performance in polycrystalline SnSe. The zone-melted Sn 0.99 Ag 0.02 Se shows better thermoelectric performance than the Ag-doped SnSe single crystal in the entire temperature range, exhibiting a peak ZT of 1.3 at 793 K.

Facile in situ solution synthesis of SnSe/rGO nanocomposites with enhanced thermoelectric performance

“…67 Considering that the power factors of our samples are still below the optimal values (see ref. 68 for an example), we expect that by combining doping strategies with texture control in optimised SnSe/rGO composites, it should be possible to improve ZT values by a considerable margin.…”

Metal Sulfide Ag2S: Fabrication via Zone Melting Method and Its Thermoelectric Property

“…5(a) shows. Here, we should note such sample processing modes are widely adopted in other zone melting thermoelectric materials, such as Bi2Te3, SnSe, etc [19][20] . In Fig.…”

Anion-exchange synthesis of thermoelectric layered SnS0.1Se0.9−xTex nano/microstructures in aqueous solution: complexity and carrier concentration

“…The thermoelectric performance of a SnS0.1Se0.9 pellet 58 with a very similar degree of texturing (preferred orientation of the (400) plane) to the SnS0.1Se0.9-xTex samples is also included for comparison in order to understand the influence of replacing Se by Te on the thermoelectric performance (while simultaneously excluding the influence of texturing). [65][66][67] Figure 7a presents plots of the electrical conductivity (σ) as a function of temperature for all the samples. For SPS-SnS0.1Se0.9-xTex (x = 0.02, 0.05) samples, initially (below 450 K), σ increases with increasing temperature, conforming to the expected semiconducting behaviour.…”