Synthesis and Characterization of Au nanoparticle-Supported Bulk Thermoelectric Materials

SbBiTe大块合金在室温下是最有效的热电材料之一。另一方面，提高无量纲优值系数(ZT)的方法是降低材料的晶格热导率(κLat)，同时保持较高的电导率，即创造一种声子分散而电子不受影响的情况。在这里，我们用γ射线照射合成了一种完整的纳米复合材料，其中Au/AuTe_2纳米粒子均匀分散在Sb_&lt；1.6&gt；Bi_&lt；0.4&gt；Te_3基质中，没有聚集。κ晶格显著减小，主要是由于纳米粒子与基质相之间的声子散射界面数目增加，从而导致ZT明显增强。在423K时，Au/Aute_2纳米颗粒负载的Sb_t；1.6&gt；Bi_t；0.4；Te_3纳米复合材料的最大Zt值为1.01，比Sb_t；1.6&gt；Bi_&lt；0.4&Gt；Te_3的最大Zt值高出约18%

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