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High thermoelectric performance and low thermal conductivity in Cu2-xNaxSe bulk materials with micro-pores

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Abstract

Cu2Se has been considered as a promising thermoelectric material due to its unique structure and excellent performance. Herein, a series of Cu2-xNaxSe (x = 0, 0.01, 0.02, 0.03, and 0.04) polycrystalline samples were synthesized by combining hydrothermal synthesis and hot pressing to investigate the effects of Na-doping on the microstructure and thermoelectric properties of Cu2Se. Compared with the pristine Cu2Se, the Na-doping introduces numerous micro-pores that can optimize the thermal transport performance by strong phonon scattering effects of interfaces between the micro-pores and grains. The doped samples have excellent electrical properties and low thermal conductivity. The maximum value of ZT = 2.1 is obtained at 973 K for the Cu1.96Na0.04Se sample with nominal composition. The results confirm that introducing Na into Cu2Se is an effective and convenient strategy to improve the thermoelectric performance of the Cu2Se alloy by decreasing the lattice thermal conductivity.

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Acknowledgements

This study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 61774136), and the China and Henan Postdoctoral Science Foundation (Grant Nos. 2017M620303 and 2018M630833).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Material Physics of Ministry of Education, School of Physics and Engineering, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, 450001, China

    Zheng Zhu, Yuewen Zhang, Hongzhang Song & Xin-Jian Li

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  1. Zheng Zhu
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  2. Yuewen Zhang
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  3. Hongzhang Song
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  4. Xin-Jian Li
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Correspondence to Hongzhang Song or Xin-Jian Li.

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Zhu, Z., Zhang, Y., Song, H. et al. High thermoelectric performance and low thermal conductivity in Cu2-xNaxSe bulk materials with micro-pores. Appl. Phys. A 125, 572 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00339-019-2870-8

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