Large Mobility Enables Higher Thermoelectric Cooling and Power Generation Performance in n-type AgPb18+xSbTe20 Crystals

Journal of the American Chemical Society

Abstract

The room-temperature thermoelectric performance of materials underpins their thermoelectric cooling ability. Carrier mobility plays a significant role in the electronic transport property of materials, especially near room temperature, which can be optimized by proper composition control and growing crystals. Here, we grow Pb-compensated AgPb 18+ x SbTe 20 crystals using a vertical Bridgman method. A large weighted mobility of ∼410 cm 2 V –1 s –1 is achieved in the AgPb 18.4 SbTe 20 crystal, which is almost 4 times higher than that of the polycrystalline counterpart due to the elimination of grain boundaries and Ag-rich dislocations verified by atom probe tomography, highlighting the significant benefit of growing crystals for low-temperature thermoelectrics. Due to the largely promoted weighted mobility, we achieve a high power factor of ∼37.8 μW cm –1 K –2 and a large figure of merit ZT of ∼0.6 in AgPb 18.4 SbTe 20 crystal at 303 K. We further designed a 7-pair thermoelectric module using this n -type crystal and a commercial p -type (Bi, Sb) 2 Te 3 -based material. As a result, a high cooling temperature difference (Δ T ) of ∼42.7 K and a power generation efficiency of ∼3.7% are achieved, revealing promising thermoelectric applications for PbTe-based materials near room temperature.

Authors 14

1. Yingcai Zhu

   Beihang University

   Affiliation as printed

   School of Materials Science and Engineering, Beihang University, Beijing 100191, China

2. Yuan Yu Aachen Institute of Physics (IA)

   RWTH Aachen University

   Affiliation as printed

   Institute of Physics (IA), RWTH Aachen University, Sommerfeldstraße 14, 52074 Aachen, Germany

3. Huaide Zhang Aachen Institute of Physics (IA)

   RWTH Aachen University

   Affiliation as printed

   Institute of Physics (IA), RWTH Aachen University, Sommerfeldstraße 14, 52074 Aachen, Germany

4. Yongxin Qin

   Beihang University

   Affiliation as printed

   School of Materials Science and Engineering, Beihang University, Beijing 100191, China

5. Ziyuan Wang

   Kunming University of Science and Technology

   Affiliation as printed

   Faculty of Materials Science and Engineering, Kunming University of Science and Technology, Kunming 650093, China

6. Shaoping Zhan

   Beihang University

   Affiliation as printed

   School of Materials Science and Engineering, Beihang University, Beijing 100191, China

7. Dongrui Liu

   Beihang University

   Affiliation as printed

   School of Materials Science and Engineering, Beihang University, Beijing 100191, China

8. Nan Lin Aachen Institute of Physics (IA)

   RWTH Aachen University

   Affiliation as printed

   Institute of Physics (IA), RWTH Aachen University, Sommerfeldstraße 14, 52074 Aachen, Germany

9. Yinghao Tao Aachen Institute of Physics (IA)

   RWTH Aachen University

   Affiliation as printed

   Institute of Physics (IA), RWTH Aachen University, Sommerfeldstraße 14, 52074 Aachen, Germany

10. Tao Hong

    Beihang University

    Affiliation as printed

    School of Materials Science and Engineering, Beihang University, Beijing 100191, China

11. Siqi Wang

    Beihang University

    Affiliation as printed

    School of Materials Science and Engineering, Beihang University, Beijing 100191, China

12. Zhen‐Hua Ge

    Kunming University of Science and Technology

    Affiliation as printed

    Faculty of Materials Science and Engineering, Kunming University of Science and Technology, Kunming 650093, China

13. Matthias Wuttig Aachen Institute of Physics (IA)

    RWTH Aachen University

    Affiliation as printed

    Institute of Physics (IA), RWTH Aachen University, Sommerfeldstraße 14, 52074 Aachen, Germany

14. Li‐Dong Zhao corresponding

    Beihang University

    Affiliation as printed

    Key Laboratory of Intelligent Sensing Materials and Chip Integration Technology of Zhejiang Province (2021E10022), Hangzhou Innovation Institute of Beihang University, Hangzhou 310051, China

    School of Materials Science and Engineering, Beihang University, Beijing 100191, China