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Rational design, two-step synthesis of Cu2GeS3 crystal with enhanced thermoelectric performance by Te alloying

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Abstract

Currently, Cu2GeS3 has been obtained through solid-state reaction. However, the pure phase Cu2GeS3 synthesized still faces challenges due to the low boiling point of the sulfur element. Herein, we have prepared pristine Cu2GeS3 by a two-step method. Firstly, the pure phase GeS2 was synthesized by solvothermal method and then used the freshly as-synthesized GeS2 as raw material to react with copper powder to fabricate pure phase Cu2GeS3. Further, the thermoelectric properties of Cu2GeS3 crystal have been explored. At room temperature, the electric resistance value measured by multimeter was ~ 2634 Ω for intrinsic Cu2GeS3 crystal, which exceeded the instrument (electrical conductivity/Seebeck coefficient) test range of 0–2000 Ω, so there is no relevant report in the thermoelectric field about Cu2GeS3 crystal. In order to improve its conductivity, Cu2GeS3 crystal is alloyed with a small amount of Te powder to obtainable Cu2GeS3−xTex samples, which have obvious thermoelectric properties. By adjusting the content of Te, finally, the electrical conductivity of the Cu3GeS2.6Te0.4 sample reached 364.20 S m−1 and the figure-of-merit ZTmax value of ~ 0.12 were obtained at 816 K.

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Acknowledegments

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) (Grants 21641007), the Major Project of the Education Department of Anhui Province (KJ2016SD63), and the University Synergy Innovation Program of Anhui Province (GXXT-2021-022).

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Author notes

  1. Zeqing Hu, Huihong Xu, and Yangjian Lin have contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Anhui Province Key Laboratory of Chemistry for Inorganic/Organic Hybrid Functionalized Materials, School of Chemistry & Chemical Engineering, Anhui University, Hefei, 230601, Anhui, People’s Republic of China

    Zeqing Hu, Huihong Xu, Junsheng Xu, Zhou Li & Jiming Song

  2. Key Laboratory of Structure and Functional Regulation of Hybrid Materials (Anhui University), School of Materials Science and Engineering, Anhui University, Ministry of Education, Hefei, 230601, Anhui, People’s Republic of China

    Zhou Li & Jiming Song

  3. Institute of Physical Science and Information Technology, Anhui University, Hefei, 230601, People’s Republic of China

    Yangjian Lin

  4. School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Hefei University of Technology, Hefei, 230009, People’s Republic of China

    Yu Liu

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  1. Zeqing Hu
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  2. Huihong Xu
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  4. Yu Liu
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Contributions

ZH: Investigation, Conceptualization, Methodology, Writing—original draft. HX: Thermal Performance Measurement. YL: Microstructure Characterization. YL: Resources, Investigation. JX: Software Validation. ZL: Formula analysis, Supervision, Funding acquisition. JS: Funding acquisition, Data analysis, Supervision, Writing—review and editing. ZH, HX, YL have contributed equally to this work.

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Correspondence to Zhou Li or Jiming Song.

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Hu, Z., Xu, H., Lin, Y. et al. Rational design, two-step synthesis of Cu2GeS3 crystal with enhanced thermoelectric performance by Te alloying. J Mater Sci: Mater Electron 33, 15894–15903 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10854-022-08488-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10854-022-08488-z

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