Transport Properties of Bi₂S₃ and the Ternary Bismuth Sulfides KBi_6.33S₁₀ and K₂Bi₈S₁₃

Abstract

We have studied transport properties (resistivity, Hall effect, thermopower, and thermal conductivity) of Bi2S3 and two new ternary bismuth sulfides, KBi6.33S10 and K2Bi8S13, to explore their potential for thermoelectric applications. While both Bi2S3 and K2Bi8S13 display an essentially metallic conduction, KBi6.33S10 has a distinctly semiconducting character. From the Hall measurements it follows that the dominant carriers in all three compounds are electrons and that the carrier density in K2Bi8S13 is almost 2 orders of magnitude larger than in Bi2S3 and KBi6.33S10 over the whole temperature range from 4 to 300 K. While the room temperature thermopowers of KBi6.33S10 and K2Bi8S13 are comparable (∼−100 μV/K), the thermopower of Bi2S3 is a factor of 3 larger. All three compounds are poor conductors of heat, in particular the thermal conductivity of KBi6.33S10 is some 25% lower than the thermal conductivity of Bi2Te3, the benchmark thermoelectric material. To make these materials useful thermoelectrics, ways must be found how to significantly increase their electrical conduction while preserving the reasonably large thermopower and low thermal conductivity.

Mechanical, electronic, and optical properties of Bi2S3 and Bi2Se3 compounds: first principle investigations

“…Motivated by their application potential (photovoltaic, thermoelectric, X-ray computed tomography, electrochemical hydrogen storage etc.) [5][6][7][8][9] the binary compounds Bi2X3 are the most studied. These compounds with the space group Pnma -D2h16 have four molecules (20 atoms) in a unit cell and have tetradymitelike layered structure with ionic-covalent bounded quintuple layer slabs.…”

A Facile Route to Flowerlike Bi2S3 Constructed by Polycrystalline Nanoplates with Enhanced Electrochemical Properties

“…[7] Therefore, well-defined 3D architectures, including microspheres, [8] microflowers, [9] dendrites, [10] and urchinlike [11] structures, have been prepared. Bismuth sulfide, a direct-band-gap (1.4 eV) semiconductor with a lamellar structure, has attracted particular interest because of its potential application in photoconductivity, [12] solar cells, [13,14] thermoelectric devices, [15] electrochemical hydrogen storage, [16,17] and lithium-ion batteries. [18] Inspired by its excellent properties, a variety of methods have been developed that focus on the fabrication of Bi 2 S 3 nanocrystals.…”

New Layered Fluorosulfide SrFBiS2

“…It should be noted that Bi 2 S 3 polycrystal shows metallic behavior becasue of sulfur deficiency. 29 The impurity may have some minor influence on the absolute value of resis- tivity, but the semiconducting behavior should be intrinsic. Neglecting the grain boundary contribution, the room-temperature resistivity ρ(300 K) is about 0.5 Ω·cm.…”