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Highly Porous Thermoelectric Nanocomposites with Low Thermal Conductivity and High Figure of Merit from Large‐Scale Solution‐Synthesized Bi 2 Te 2.5 Se 0.5 Hollow Nanostructures
Author(s) -
Xu Biao,
Feng Tianli,
Agne Matthias T.,
Zhou Lin,
Ruan Xiulin,
Snyder G. Jeffery,
Wu Yue
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
angewandte chemie
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1521-3757
pISSN - 0044-8249
DOI - 10.1002/ange.201612041
Subject(s) - chalcogenide , materials science , thermal conductivity , thermoelectric effect , figure of merit , porosity , thermoelectric materials , nanostructure , nanocomposite , percolation (cognitive psychology) , nanotechnology , chemical engineering , composite material , optoelectronics , thermodynamics , physics , engineering , neuroscience , biology
To enhance the performance of thermoelectric materials and enable access to their widespread applications, it is beneficial yet challenging to synthesize hollow nanostructures in large quantities, with high porosity, low thermal conductivity ( κ ) and excellent figure of merit ( z T ). Herein we report a scalable (ca. 11.0 g per batch) and low‐temperature colloidal processing route for Bi 2 Te 2.5 Se 0.5 hollow nanostructures. They are sintered into porous, bulk nanocomposites (phi 10 mm× h 10 mm) with low κ (0.48 W m −1 K −1 ) and the highest z T (1.18) among state‐of‐the‐art Bi 2 Te 3− x Se x materilas. Additional benefits of the unprecedented low relative density (68–77 %) are the large demand reduction of raw materials and the improved portability. This method can be adopted to fabricate other porous phase‐transition and thermoelectric chalcogenide materials and will pave the way for the implementation of hollow nanostructures in other fields.