TY - JOUR
T1 - Facile composite engineering to boost thermoelectric power conversion in ZnSb device
AU - Theja, Vaskuri C.S.
AU - Karthikeyan, Vaithinathan
AU - Nayak, Sanjib
AU - Kandira, Kadir Ufuk
AU - Assi, Dani S.
AU - Kannan, Venkataramanan
AU - Roy, Vellaisamy A.L.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 Elsevier Ltd
PY - 2023/7
Y1 - 2023/7
N2 - Zinc antimonide (ZnSb) is one of the alternatives for commercial thermoelectric materials due to its non-toxic, low-cost, and earth-abundant nature. However, its simple crystal structure causes strong phonon vibrations, which enhance lattice thermal conductivity. In this work, we systematically studied the effect of γ-Al2O3 nano-inclusions on ZnSb. Our results show that composite engineering imparts lattice phonon scattering for reduced thermal conductivity and low-energy carrier filtering for enhanced Seebeck coefficient. The obtained figure of merit in the ZnSb+5% γ-Al2O3 sample at 673 K is nearly two-fold higher than the pristine sample. Our fabricated 2-leg ZnSb+5% γ-Al2O3 device displayed a power generation of 0.11 μW at ΔT of 200 °C. Furthermore, adding γ-Al2O3 nano-inclusions improve the mechanical and thermal stabilities due to grain boundary hardening and dispersion strengthening. Overall, the addition of γ-Al2O3 nano-inclusions to ZnSb enhancing the Seebeck coefficient, reducing thethermal conductivity, and improving mechanical and thermal stability significantly.
AB - Zinc antimonide (ZnSb) is one of the alternatives for commercial thermoelectric materials due to its non-toxic, low-cost, and earth-abundant nature. However, its simple crystal structure causes strong phonon vibrations, which enhance lattice thermal conductivity. In this work, we systematically studied the effect of γ-Al2O3 nano-inclusions on ZnSb. Our results show that composite engineering imparts lattice phonon scattering for reduced thermal conductivity and low-energy carrier filtering for enhanced Seebeck coefficient. The obtained figure of merit in the ZnSb+5% γ-Al2O3 sample at 673 K is nearly two-fold higher than the pristine sample. Our fabricated 2-leg ZnSb+5% γ-Al2O3 device displayed a power generation of 0.11 μW at ΔT of 200 °C. Furthermore, adding γ-Al2O3 nano-inclusions improve the mechanical and thermal stabilities due to grain boundary hardening and dispersion strengthening. Overall, the addition of γ-Al2O3 nano-inclusions to ZnSb enhancing the Seebeck coefficient, reducing thethermal conductivity, and improving mechanical and thermal stability significantly.
KW - Nano-inclusion
KW - Phonon scattering
KW - Thermal conductivity
KW - ZnSb
KW - γ-AlO
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85151413132&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - https://www.mendeley.com/catalogue/564dbaea-e211-31c6-a4b7-7e20dc79de7a/
U2 - 10.1016/j.jpcs.2023.111329
DO - 10.1016/j.jpcs.2023.111329
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85151413132
SN - 0022-3697
VL - 178
JO - Journal of Physics and Chemistry of Solids
JF - Journal of Physics and Chemistry of Solids
M1 - 111329
ER -