Abstract
Reducing the thermal conductivity of thermoelectric materials has been a field of intense research to improve the efficiency of thermoelectric devices. One approach is to create a nanostructured thermoelectric material that has a low thermal conductivity due to its high number of grain boundaries or voids, which scatter phonons. Here, we present a new method based on spark ablation nanoparticle generation to create nanostructured thermoelectric materials, demonstrated using Bi2Te3. The lowest achieved thermal conductivity was <0.1 W m (Formula presented.) K (Formula presented.) at room temperature with a mean nanoparticle size of (Formula presented.) nm and a porosity of 44%. This is comparable to the best published nanostructured Bi2Te3 films. Oxidation is also shown to be a major issue for nanoporous materials such as the one here, illustrating the importance of immediate, air-tight packaging of such materials after synthesis and deposition.
Original language | English |
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Article number | 1778 |
Journal | Nanomaterials |
Volume | 13 |
Issue number | 11 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 31 May 2023 |
Keywords
- BiTe
- nanoparticle
- nanostructured
- spark ablation
- thermoelectric