High thermoelectric performance in low-cost SnS0.91Se0.09 crystals

Wenke He; Dongyang Wang; Haijun Wu; Yu Xiao; Yang Zhang; Dongsheng He; Yue Feng; Yu-Jie Hao; Jin-Feng Dong; Raju Chetty; Lijie Hao; Dongfeng Chen; Jianfei Qin; Qiang Yang; Xin Li; Jian-Ming Song; Yingcai Zhu; Wei Xu; Changlei Niu; Xin Li; Guangtao Wang; Chang Liu; Michihiro Ohta; Stephen J Pennycook; Jiaqing He; Jing-Feng Li; Li-Dong Zhao

doi:10.1126/science.aax5123

High thermoelectric performance in low-cost SnS_0.91Se_0.09 crystals

Science. 2019 Sep 27;365(6460):1418-1424. doi: 10.1126/science.aax5123.

Authors

Wenke He¹, Dongyang Wang¹, Haijun Wu², Yu Xiao¹, Yang Zhang², Dongsheng He³, Yue Feng³, Yu-Jie Hao³, Jin-Feng Dong⁴, Raju Chetty⁵, Lijie Hao⁶, Dongfeng Chen⁶, Jianfei Qin⁶, Qiang Yang⁷, Xin Li⁷, Jian-Ming Song⁷, Yingcai Zhu⁸, Wei Xu⁸, Changlei Niu⁹, Xin Li⁹, Guangtao Wang¹⁰, Chang Liu^{3

11}, Michihiro Ohta⁵, Stephen J Pennycook², Jiaqing He³, Jing-Feng Li⁴, Li-Dong Zhao¹²

Affiliations

¹ School of Materials Science and Engineering, Beihang University, Beijing 100191, China.
² Department of Materials Science and Engineering, National University of Singapore, Singapore 117575, Singapore.
³ Department of Physics, Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen 518055, China.
⁴ Key Laboratory of New Ceramics and Fine Processing, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China.
⁵ Research Institute for Energy Conservation, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-8568, Japan.
⁶ Department of Nuclear Physics, Neutron Scattering Laboratory, China Institute of Atomic Energy, Beijing 102413, China.
⁷ Key Laboratory of Neutron Physics and Institute of Nuclear Physics and Chemistry, China Academy of Engineering Physics, Mianyang 621900, China.
⁸ Beijing Synchrotron Radiation Facility, Institute of High Energy Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China.
⁹ Department of Isotope, China Institute of Atomic Energy, Beijing 102413, China.
¹⁰ College of Physics and Materials Science, Henan Normal University, Xinxiang 453007, China.
¹¹ Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Quantum Science and Engineering, Shenzhen Institute for Quantum Science and Engineering, Shenzhen 518055, China.
¹² School of Materials Science and Engineering, Beihang University, Beijing 100191, China. zhaolidong@buaa.edu.cn.

PMID: 31604269
DOI: 10.1126/science.aax5123

Abstract

Thermoelectric technology allows conversion between heat and electricity. Many good thermoelectric materials contain rare or toxic elements, so developing low-cost and high-performance thermoelectric materials is warranted. Here, we report the temperature-dependent interplay of three separate electronic bands in hole-doped tin sulfide (SnS) crystals. This behavior leads to synergistic optimization between effective mass (m*) and carrier mobility (μ) and can be boosted through introducing selenium (Se). This enhanced the power factor from ~30 to ~53 microwatts per centimeter per square kelvin (μW cm^-1 K^-2 at 300 K), while lowering the thermal conductivity after Se alloying. As a result, we obtained a maximum figure of merit ZT (ZT _max) of ~1.6 at 873 K and an average ZT (ZT _ave) of ~1.25 at 300 to 873 K in SnS_0.91Se_0.09 crystals. Our strategy for band manipulation offers a different route for optimizing thermoelectric performance. The high-performance SnS crystals represent an important step toward low-cost, Earth-abundant, and environmentally friendly thermoelectrics.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't