Synthesis and Characterization of Au nanoparticle-Supported Bulk Thermoelectric Materials

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SbBiTe bulk alloys have been some of the most efficient thermoelectric (TE) materials near room temperature. On the other hand, the way to enhance the dimensionless figure of merit (ZT) is to decrease the lattice thermal conductivity (κlat) of the material, while maintaining a high electrical conductivity, i.e., to create a situation in which phonons are scattered but electrons are unaffected. Here we synthesizeda complete nanocomposite using γ-ray irradiation, in which Au/AuTe_2 nanoparticles are dispersed uniformly without aggregation in the Sb_<1.6>Bi_<0.4>Te_3 matrix. The κlatwas significantly reduced mainly due to the increased number of interfaces for phonon scattering between the nanoparticles and the matrix phase, thereby resulting in clear enhancement of ZT. The maximum ZTvalue of the Au/AuTe_2 nanoparticle-supported Sb_<1.6>Bi_<0.4>Te_3 nanocomposite was 1.01 at 423 K, which is about 18% higher than the maximum Ztvalue of Sb_<1.6>Bi_<0.4>Te_3