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Thermoelectric figure of merit and thermal conductivity of type-l clathrate alloy nanowires

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Abstract

Clathrates based on Si and Ge have very low lattice thermal conductivity (~1 W/m-K). This value can potentially be further reduced by alloying and nano-structuring. In this work, the thermal conductivity of Si and Ge clathrates alloy have been investigated using model based on the relaxation time approximation. By including alloy scattering, we find that the lattice thermal conductivity of Ba8Cu6Si40 ¡s reduced by 50% from 1.64 to 0.80 W/m-K in Ba8Cu6Si40(1-x)Ge40x alloy. Further ~90% reduction of the thermal conductivity is possible for nanowire clathrate alloys. The ultra-low thermal conductivity in the nanowire will be very suitable for the thermoelectric application.

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Acknowledgments

The authors thank DST (INT/AUSTRIA/BMWF/P-02/2018) and the DFG within the SPP1386 (DFG: MA 5487/2-1) for financial support. The authors acknowledge NPSF PARAM Yuva-II HPC for the computational facility.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Nano Science and Technology, Habitat Center, Phase-X, Mohali, Punjab -, 160062, India

    Prabhjot Kaur & Chandan Bera

  2. Institute of Materials Chemistry, TU Wien, A-1060, Vienna, Austria

    Georg K. H. Madsen

Authors
  1. Prabhjot Kaur
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  2. Georg K. H. Madsen
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  3. Chandan Bera
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Chandan Bera.

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Supplementary material

The supplementary material for this article can be found at https://doi.org/10.1557/mrc.2018.242

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Kaur, P., Madsen, G.K.H. & Bera, C. Thermoelectric figure of merit and thermal conductivity of type-l clathrate alloy nanowires. MRS Communications 9, 370–374 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1557/mrc.2018.242

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1557/mrc.2018.242

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