Lattice plainification advances highly effective SnSe crystalline thermoelectrics.
basic_science · Level V
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- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 37228203.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1126/science.adg7196.
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Abstract
Thermoelectric technology has been widely used for key areas, including waste-heat recovery and solid-state cooling. We discovered tin selenide (SnSe) crystals with potential power generation and Peltier cooling performance. The extensive off-stoichiometric defects have a larger impact on the transport properties of SnSe, which motivated us to develop a lattice plainification strategy for defects engineering. We demonstrated that Cu can fill Sn vacancies to weaken defects scattering and boost carrier mobility, facilitating a power factor exceeding ~100 microwatts per centimeter per square kelvin and a dimensionless figure of merit (<i>ZT</i>) of ~1.5 at 300 kelvin, with an average <i>ZT</i> of ~2.2 at 300 to 773 kelvin. We further realized a single-leg efficiency of ~12.2% under a temperature difference (Δ<i>T</i>) of ~300 kelvin and a seven-pair Peltier cooling Δ<i>T</i><sub>max</sub> of ~61.2 kelvin at ambient temperature. Our observations are important for practical applications of SnSe crystals in power generation as well as electronic cooling.