Ultralow Lattice Thermal Conductivity and Enhanced Thermoelectric Performance in SnTe:Ga Materials

Rabih Al Rahal Al Orabi; Junphil Hwang; Chan Chieh Lin; Régis Gautier; Bruno Fontaine; Woochul Kim; Jong Soo Rhyee; Daehyun Wee; Marco Fornari

doi:10.1021/acs.chemmater.6b04076

Ultralow Lattice Thermal Conductivity and Enhanced Thermoelectric Performance in SnTe:Ga Materials

Rabih Al Rahal Al Orabi, Junphil Hwang, Chan Chieh Lin, Régis Gautier, Bruno Fontaine, Woochul Kim, Jong Soo Rhyee, Daehyun Wee, Marco Fornari

Department of Environmental Science & Engineering

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

91 Scopus citations

Abstract

Ultralow thermal conductivity is of great interest in a variety of fields, including thermoelectric energy conversion. We report, for the first time, experimental evidence that Ga-doping in SnTe may lower the lattice thermal conduction slightly below the theoretical amorphous minimum at high temperature. Such an effect is justified by the spontaneous formation of nanoprecipitates we characterized as GaTe. Remarkably, the introduction of Ga (2-10%) in SnTe also improves the electronic transport properties by activating several hole pockets in the multivalley valence band. Experimental results are supported by density functional theory calculations. The thermoelectric figure of merit, ZT, reaches ∼1 at 873 K in Sn_0.96Ga_0.07Te, which corresponds to an ∼80% improvement with respect to pure SnTe.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	612-620
Number of pages	9
Journal	Chemistry of Materials
Volume	29
Issue number	2
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.chemmater.6b04076
State	Published - 24 Jan 2017

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© 2016 American Chemical Society.

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title = "Ultralow Lattice Thermal Conductivity and Enhanced Thermoelectric Performance in SnTe:Ga Materials",

abstract = "Ultralow thermal conductivity is of great interest in a variety of fields, including thermoelectric energy conversion. We report, for the first time, experimental evidence that Ga-doping in SnTe may lower the lattice thermal conduction slightly below the theoretical amorphous minimum at high temperature. Such an effect is justified by the spontaneous formation of nanoprecipitates we characterized as GaTe. Remarkably, the introduction of Ga (2-10%) in SnTe also improves the electronic transport properties by activating several hole pockets in the multivalley valence band. Experimental results are supported by density functional theory calculations. The thermoelectric figure of merit, ZT, reaches ∼1 at 873 K in Sn0.96Ga0.07Te, which corresponds to an ∼80% improvement with respect to pure SnTe.",

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AU - Al Rahal Al Orabi, Rabih

AU - Hwang, Junphil

AU - Lin, Chan Chieh

AU - Gautier, Régis

AU - Fontaine, Bruno

AU - Kim, Woochul

AU - Rhyee, Jong Soo

AU - Wee, Daehyun

AU - Fornari, Marco

PY - 2017/1/24

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N2 - Ultralow thermal conductivity is of great interest in a variety of fields, including thermoelectric energy conversion. We report, for the first time, experimental evidence that Ga-doping in SnTe may lower the lattice thermal conduction slightly below the theoretical amorphous minimum at high temperature. Such an effect is justified by the spontaneous formation of nanoprecipitates we characterized as GaTe. Remarkably, the introduction of Ga (2-10%) in SnTe also improves the electronic transport properties by activating several hole pockets in the multivalley valence band. Experimental results are supported by density functional theory calculations. The thermoelectric figure of merit, ZT, reaches ∼1 at 873 K in Sn0.96Ga0.07Te, which corresponds to an ∼80% improvement with respect to pure SnTe.

AB - Ultralow thermal conductivity is of great interest in a variety of fields, including thermoelectric energy conversion. We report, for the first time, experimental evidence that Ga-doping in SnTe may lower the lattice thermal conduction slightly below the theoretical amorphous minimum at high temperature. Such an effect is justified by the spontaneous formation of nanoprecipitates we characterized as GaTe. Remarkably, the introduction of Ga (2-10%) in SnTe also improves the electronic transport properties by activating several hole pockets in the multivalley valence band. Experimental results are supported by density functional theory calculations. The thermoelectric figure of merit, ZT, reaches ∼1 at 873 K in Sn0.96Ga0.07Te, which corresponds to an ∼80% improvement with respect to pure SnTe.

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Ultralow Lattice Thermal Conductivity and Enhanced Thermoelectric Performance in SnTe:Ga Materials

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