Impact of Surface-Bound Small Molecules on the Thermoelectric Property of Self-Assembled Ag2Te Nanocrystal Thin Films

Small molecules with functional groups can show different electron affinity and binding behavior on nanocrystal surface, which in principle could be used to alternate the electrical transport in self-assembled nanocrystal thin films. These small molecules can also serve for scattering the phonons to reduce the thermal conductivity. Here, we present our research on the thermoelectric characteristic of self-assembled silver telluride (Ag2Te) nanocrystal thin films that are fabricated by a layer-by-layer (LBL) dip-coating process. We perform investigations on the electrical conductivity and Seebeck coefficient on the Ag2Te nanocrystal thin films containing hydrazine, 1,2-ethanedithiol, and ethylenediamine between 300 and 400 K. We also use photothermal (PT) technique to obtain the thermal conductivity of the films at room temperature and estimate the thermoelectric figure of merit (ZT). The experimental results suggest that the surface-bound small molecules could serve as a beneficial component to build nanocrystal-based thermoelectric devices operating at low temperature.