Enhanced Thermoelectric Properties of Bi2 Te3 -Based Micro-Nano Fibers via Thermal Drawing and Interfacial Engineering

Min Sun; Guowu Tang; Hanfu Wang; Ting Zhang; Pengyu Zhang; Bin Han; Ming Yang; Hang Zhang; Yicong Chen; Jun Chen; Qingfeng Zhu; Jiangyu Li; Dongdan Chen; Jiulin Gan; Qi Qian; Zhongmin Yang

doi:10.1002/adma.202202942

Enhanced Thermoelectric Properties of Bi₂ Te₃ -Based Micro-Nano Fibers via Thermal Drawing and Interfacial Engineering

Adv Mater. 2022 Sep;34(36):e2202942. doi: 10.1002/adma.202202942. Epub 2022 Aug 7.

Authors

Min Sun^{1

2}, Guowu Tang^{1

2

3}, Hanfu Wang⁴, Ting Zhang^{5

6}, Pengyu Zhang², Bin Han², Ming Yang⁵, Hang Zhang⁵, Yicong Chen⁷, Jun Chen⁷, Qingfeng Zhu⁸, Jiangyu Li⁸, Dongdan Chen², Jiulin Gan², Qi Qian², Zhongmin Yang^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ School of Physics and Optoelectronics, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou, 510640, China.
² State Key Laboratory of Luminescent Materials and Devices, Institute of Optical Communication Materials, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Fiber Laser Materials and Applied Techniques, and Guangdong Engineering Technology Research and Development Center of Special Optical Fiber Materials and Devices, School of Materials Science and Engineering, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou, 510640, China.
³ School of Physics and Optoelectronic Engineering, Guangdong University of Technology, Guangzhou, 510006, China.
⁴ CAS Key Laboratory of Nanosystem and Hierarchical Fabrication, National Center for Nanoscience and Technology of China, Beijing, 100190, China.
⁵ Institute of Engineering Thermophysics, Innovation Academy for Light-duty Gas Turbine, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100190, China.
⁶ Nanjing Institute of Future Energy System, Nanjing, 211135, China.
⁷ State Key Laboratory of Optoelectronic Materials and Technologies, Guangdong Province Key Laboratory of Display Material and Technology, School of Electronics and Information Technology, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, 510275, China.
⁸ Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen, 518055, China.

PMID: 35816109
DOI: 10.1002/adma.202202942

Abstract

High-performance thermoelectric (TE) materials with great flexibility and stability are urgently needed to efficiently convert heat energy into electrical power. Recently, intrinsically crystalline, mechanically stable, and flexible inorganic TE fibers that show TE properties comparable to their bulk counterparts have been of interest to researchers. Despite remarkable progress in moving TE fibers toward room-temperature TE conversion, the figure-of-merit value (ZT) and bending stability still need enhancement. Herein, interfacial-engineering-enhanced TE properties of micro-nano polycrystalline TE fibers fabricated by thermally drawing Bi₂ Te₃ -based bulks in a glass-fiber template are reported. The interfacial engineering effect comes from generating stress-induced oriented nanocrystals to increase electrical conductivity and producing strain-distorted interfaces to decrease thermal conductivity. The 4 µm-diameter fibers achieve a 40% higher ZT (≈1.4 at 300 K) than their bulk counterparts and show a reversible bending radius of 50 µm, approaching the theoretical elastic limit. This fabrication strategy works for a wide range of inorganic TE materials and benefits the development of fiber-based micro-TE devices.

Keywords: Bi 2Te 3; interfacial engineering; thermal drawing; thermoelectric fibers.

Abstract

Grants and funding