Bayikadi, Khasimsaheb and Sonnathi, Neeleshwar and Srikanth, Mandava (2015) Thermoelectric properties of spark plasma sintered lead telluride nanocubes. Journal of Materials Research, 30 (17). 2638-2648 . ISSN 0884-2914

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Abstract

We report a cost-effective, surfactant-free, and scalable synthesis technique for lead telluride (PbTe) nanocubes by a chemical precipitation method. The high-resolution transmission electron microscopy studies indicated the evolution of nucleation centers (spherical) into nanocubes with the addition of the Pb and Te atoms. The spark plasma sintered PbTe nanocubes exhibited an enhanced Seebeck coefficient, S > +400 mu V, higher than the reported values of the bulk PbTe over an extended temperature range of 300-425 K, and a moderate electrical conductivity, sigma similar to 8000 S/m at 300 K. A significant reduction in the lattice thermal conductivity was observed due to effective phonon scattering from the presence of numerous interfaces introduced by nanostructuring. The resulting figure-of-merit (ZT) similar to 0.45 at 300 K is higher than the reported values at this temperature in other PbTe nanostructures. Moreover, a moderate thermoelectric compatibility factor makes the PbTe nanocubes a potential candidate for green energy generation.

Item Type:	Article
Additional Information:	Copyright for this article belongs to M/S Cambridge University Press (CUP).
Subjects:	Materials Science
Divisions:	UNSPECIFIED
Depositing User:	Dr. Rajpal Walke
Date Deposited:	30 Jan 2017 11:55
Last Modified:	30 Jan 2017 11:55
URI:	http://npl.csircentral.net/id/eprint/2051

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