Realizing the Ultralow Lattice Thermal Conductivity of Cu3SbSe4 Compound via Sulfur Alloying Effect

Lijun Zhao; Haiwei Han; Zhengping Lu; Jian Yang; Xinmeng Wu; Bangzhi Ge; Lihua Yu; Zhongqi Shi; Abdulnasser M Karami; Songtao Dong; Shahid Hussain; Guanjun Qiao; Junhua Xu

doi:10.3390/nano13192730

Realizing the Ultralow Lattice Thermal Conductivity of Cu₃SbSe₄ Compound via Sulfur Alloying Effect

Nanomaterials (Basel). 2023 Oct 8;13(19):2730. doi: 10.3390/nano13192730.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ School of Materials Science and Engineering, Jiangsu University of Science and Technology, Zhenjiang 212100, China.
² School of Materials Science and Engineering, Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang 212013, China.
³ School of Materials Science and Engineering, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi'an 710072, China.
⁴ State Key Laboratory for Mechanical Behavior of Materials, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an 710049, China.
⁵ Department of Chemistry, College of Science, King Saud University, Riyadh 11451, Saudi Arabia.

Abstract

Cu₃SbSe₄ is a potential p-type thermoelectric material, distinguished by its earth-abundant, inexpensive, innocuous, and environmentally friendly components. Nonetheless, the thermoelectric performance is poor and remains subpar. Herein, the electrical and thermal transport properties of Cu₃SbSe₄ were synergistically optimized by S alloying. Firstly, S alloying widened the band gap, effectively alleviating the bipolar effect. Additionally, the substitution of S in the lattice significantly increased the carrier effective mass, leading to a large Seebeck coefficient of ~730 μVK^-1. Moreover, S alloying yielded point defect and Umklapp scattering to significantly depress the lattice thermal conductivity, and thus brought about an ultralow κ_lat ~0.50 Wm^-1K^-1 at 673 K in the solid solution. Consequently, multiple effects induced by S alloying enhanced the thermoelectric performance of the Cu₃SbSe₄-Cu₃SbS₄ solid solution, resulting in a maximum ZT value of ~0.72 at 673 K for the Cu₃SbSe_2.8S_1.2 sample, which was ~44% higher than that of pristine Cu₃SbSe₄. This work offers direction on improving the comprehensive TE in solid solutions via elemental alloying.

Keywords: Cu3SbSe4-based materials; S alloying; point defect; solid solutions; thermoelectric properties.

Abstract

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