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A Facile Surfactant-Assisted Reflux Method for the Synthesis of Single-Crystalline Sb2Te3 Nanostructures with Enhanced Thermoelectric Performance
journal contribution
posted on 2015-07-08, 00:00 authored by Heng Quan Yang, Lei Miao, Cheng Yan Liu, Chao Li, Sawao Honda, Yuji Iwamoto, Rong Huang, Sakae TanemuraAntimony telluride (Sb2Te3) and its based alloys are of importance to p-type
semiconductors for thermoelectric applications near room temperature.
Herein, we report a simple, low-energy intensive, and scalable surfactant-assisted
reflux method for the synthesis of Sb2Te3 nanoparticles
in the solvent ethylene glycol (EG) at low temperatures (120–180
°C). The formation mechanism of platelike Sb2Te3 nanoparticles is proposed. Also, it is found that the size,
shape, and chemical composition of the products could be controlled
by the introduction of organic surfactants (CTAB, PVP, etc.) or inorganic
salts (EDTA-Na2, NaOH, etc.). Additionally, the collected
Sb2Te3 nanoparticles were further fabricated
into nanostructured pellets using cold-compaction and annealing techniques.
Low resistivity [(7.37–19.4) × 10–6 Ω
m], moderate Seebeck coefficient (103–141 μV K–1), and high power factor (10–16 × 10–4 W m–1 K–2) have been achieved
in our Sb2Te3-nanostructured bulk materials.
The relatively low thermal conductivity (1.32–1.55 W m–1 K–1) is attained in the nanobulk
made of PVP-modified nanoparticles, and values of ZT in the range of 0.24–0.37 are realized at temperatures ranging
from 50 to 200 °C. Our researches set forth a new avenue in promoting
practical applications of Sb2Te3-based thermoelectric
power generation or cooling devices.