Singh, Niraj Kumar and Bathula, Sivaiah and Gahtori, Bhasker and Tyagi, Kriti and Haranath, D. (2016) The effect of doping on thermoelectric performance of p-type SnSe: Promising thermoelectric material. Journal of Alloys and Compounds, 668. 152-158. ISSN 0925-8388

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Abstract

Tin selenide (SnSe) based thermoelectric materials are being explored for making inexpensive and efficient thermoelectric devices with improved thermoelectric efficiency. As both Sn and Se are earth abundant and relatively inexpensive and these alloys do not involve toxic materials, such as lead and expensive tellurium. Hence, in the present study, we have synthesized SnSe doped with 2 at% of aluminium (Al), lead (Pb), indium (In) and copper (Cu) individually, which is not reported in literature. Out of these, Cu doped SnSe resulted in enhancement of figure-of-merit (zT) of similar to 0.7 +/- 0.02 at 773 K, synthesized employing conventional fusion method followed by spark plasma sintering. This enhancement in zT is similar to 16% over the existing state-of-the-art value for p-type SnSe alloy doped with expensive Ag. This enhancement in ZT is primarily due to the presence of Cu2Se second phase associated with intrinsic nanostructure formation of SnSe. This enhancement has been corroborated with the microstructural characterization using field emission scanning electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction studies. Also, Cu doped SnSe exhibited a higher value of carrier concentration in comparison to other samples doped with Al, Pb and In. Further, the compatibility factor of Cu doped SnSe alloys exhibited value of 1.62 V-1 at 773 K and it is suitable to segment with most of the novel TE materials for obtaining the higher thermoelectric efficiencies.

Item Type: Article
Additional Information: Copyright for this article belongs to M/s Elsevier.
Uncontrolled Keywords: Tin selenide Figure-of-merit Thermoelectric performance Compatibility factor
Subjects: Chemistry > Physical Chemistry
Materials Science
Metallurgy & Metallurgical Engineering
Divisions: UNSPECIFIED
Depositing User: Dr. Rajpal Walke
Date Deposited: 23 Apr 2018 11:37
Last Modified: 23 Apr 2018 11:37
URI: http://npl.csircentral.net/id/eprint/2393

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