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Low thermal conductivity and high thermoelectric performance in Cu2Se/CuAgSe composite materials

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Abstract

As a typical superionic conductor, Cu2Se has attracted much attention in recent years due to its good thermoelectric performance, low toxicity, and high elemental abundance. However, its relatively high thermal conductivity still restricts the further improvement in figure of merit (ZT). Here, we report a facile synthesis of CuAgSe/Cu2Se composite ceramics to optimize the thermoelectric properties. Consequently, the thermal conductivity of the composite ceramics is greatly reduced due to the intrinsic low thermal conductivity of CuAgSe and the porous structures of the composites. Introducing a moderate amount CuAgSe can reduce the thermal conductivity to one-third of the value of pure Cu2Se, while the corresponding power factor (PF) remains unchanged. Ultimately, the CuAgSe/Cu2Se composite ceramics presented a good thermoelectric properties with a ZT value of 1.43 at 900 K. This work provides a simple and effective strategy to optimize Cu2Se-based materials thermoelectric performance, which also are helpful to the optimization design of other thermoelectric systems.

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Funding

This work is supported the Projection of State Key Laboratory of Environment-friendly Energy Materials, Southwest University of Science and Technology (No. 20FKSY23).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Environment-Friendly Energy Materials, Southwest University of Science and Technology, Mianyang, 621010, China

    He Yu, Jian Fu, Yi Wu & Xiaowei Zhang

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  1. He Yu
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  2. Jian Fu
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  3. Yi Wu
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  4. Xiaowei Zhang
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Contributions

Xiaowei Zhang contributed to the conception of the study and contributed significantly to analysis and revised the manuscript. He Yu performed the experiments and the data analyses and wrote the manuscript. Jian Fu and Yi Wu helped perform the analysis with constructive discussions.

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Correspondence to Xiaowei Zhang.

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Yu, H., Fu, J., Wu, Y. et al. Low thermal conductivity and high thermoelectric performance in Cu2Se/CuAgSe composite materials. J Mater Sci: Mater Electron 35, 399 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10854-024-12113-6

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