Facile fabrication of one-dimensional Te/Cu2Te nanorod composites with improved thermoelectric power factor and low thermal conductivity

Dabin Park; Hyun Ju; Taeseob Oh; Jooheon Kim

doi:10.1038/s41598-018-35713-9

Facile fabrication of one-dimensional Te/Cu₂Te nanorod composites with improved thermoelectric power factor and low thermal conductivity

Sci Rep. 2018 Dec 24;8(1):18082. doi: 10.1038/s41598-018-35713-9.

Authors

Dabin Park¹, Hyun Ju¹, Taeseob Oh¹, Jooheon Kim²

Affiliations

¹ School of Chemical Engineering & Materials Science, Chung-Ang University, Seoul, 06974, Republic of Korea.
² School of Chemical Engineering & Materials Science, Chung-Ang University, Seoul, 06974, Republic of Korea. jooheonkim@cau.ac.kr.

Abstract

In this study, Te/Cu₂Te nanorod composites were synthesized using various properties of Cu₂Te, and their thermoelectric properties were investigated. The nanorods were synthesized through a solution phase mixing process, using polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP). With increasing Cu₂Te content, the composites exhibited a reduced Seebeck coefficient and enhanced electrical conductivity. These characteristic changes were due to the high electrical conductivity and low Seebeck coefficient of Cu₂Te. The composite containing 30 wt.% of Cu₂Te nanorods showed the maximum power factor (524.6 μV/K at room temperature). The two types of nanorods were assembled into a 1D nanostructure, and with this structure, thermal conductivity decreased owing to the strong phonon scattering effect. This nanorod composite had a dramatically improved ZT value of 0.3, which was ~545 times larger than that of pristine Te nanorods.