Reduction of thermal conductivity of bulk nanostructured bismuth telluride composites embedded with silicon nano-inclusions
Abstract
Bulk nanostructured bismuth telluride (Bi2Te3) composite with silicon nano-crystallite inclusions was synthesized via sintering approach. The effect of the composite structure formed by the addition of miniscule quantity (5 at. %) of silicon on the thermoelectric properties of bulk nanostructured Bi2Te3 is shown via a 50% drop in thermal conductivity accompanied with a simultaneous enhancement in the Seebeck coefficient. We demonstrate that the addition of silicon nano-inclusions to the nanostructured compound combined with a systematic thermal treatment beneficially reduces the thermal conductivity to less than 1.0 W/mK over the entire temperature range of 300 K to 525 K. It is shown that the combinatorial techniques of nanostructuring, nano-inclusions, and annealing are effective in reducing thermal conductivity by a significant magnitude. This low thermal conductivity is comparable to that of Bi2Te3 based superlattices and significantly lower than that of bulk Bi2Te3. The technique is extendable to (Bi,Se)2(Sb,Te)3 based thermoelectric alloys for enhancing the figure-of-merit.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Pub Defense Publication
- Publication Date
- Jan 23, 2014
- Source ID
- 10.1063/1.4861727
Entities
People
- Armin Tahmasbi Rad
- Daryoosh Vashaee
- Jerzy S. Krasiński
- Lobat Tayebi
- Nikhil Satyala
- Payam Norouzzadeh
- Zahra Zamanipour
Organizations
- Air Force Office of Scientific Research
- Oklahoma State University–Stillwater