Thin Film Tin Selenide (SnSe) Thermoelectric Generators Exhibiting Ultralow Thermal Conductivity

Matthew R Burton; Tianjun Liu; James McGettrick; Shahin Mehraban; Jenny Baker; Adam Pockett; Trystan Watson; Oliver Fenwick; Matthew J Carnie

doi:10.1002/adma.201801357

Thin Film Tin Selenide (SnSe) Thermoelectric Generators Exhibiting Ultralow Thermal Conductivity

Adv Mater. 2018 Aug;30(31):e1801357. doi: 10.1002/adma.201801357. Epub 2018 Jun 21.

Authors

Matthew R Burton¹, Tianjun Liu², James McGettrick¹, Shahin Mehraban³, Jenny Baker¹, Adam Pockett¹, Trystan Watson¹, Oliver Fenwick², Matthew J Carnie¹

Affiliations

¹ SPECIFIC, Materials Research Centre, College of Engineering, Swansea University, Bay Campus, Swansea, SA1 8EN, UK.
² School of Engineering and Materials Science, Queen Mary University of London, Mile End Road, London, E1 4NS, UK.
³ MACH1, Materials Research Centre, College of Engineering, Swansea University, Bay Campus, Swansea, SA1 8EN, UK.

PMID: 29931697
DOI: 10.1002/adma.201801357

Abstract

Tin selenide (SnSe) has attracted much attention in the field of thermoelectrics since the discovery of the record figure of merit (ZT) of 2.6 ± 0.3 along the b-axis of the material. The record ZT is attributed to an ultralow thermal conductivity that arises from anharmonicity in bonding. While it is known that nanostructuring offers the prospect of enhanced thermoelectric performance, there have been minimal studies in the literature to date of the thermoelectric performance of thin films of SnSe. In this work, preferentially orientated porous networks of thin film SnSe nanosheets are fabricated using a simple thermal evaporation method, which exhibits an unprecedentedly low thermal conductivity of 0.08 W m^-1 K^-1 between 375 and 450 K. In addition, the first known example of a working SnSe thermoelectric generator is presented and characterized.

Keywords: nanosheets; thermal conductivity; thermoelectrics; thin films; tin selenide.