Enhanced thermoelectric properties of Ag-doped MnO2 single crystal nanowires for room-temperature application

Based on colossal Seebeck coefficient [Nanotechnology, 2012, 23, 085401], here we focused on electrical transportation of single crystal nanowire structure and Ag dopant on improving the figure of merit (ZT) for MnO2. In this work, a series of Mn1-xAgxO2 (x = 0, 0.01 wt%, 0.02 wt%, 0.05 wt%, 0.1 wt%) single crystal nanowires have been firstly synthesized by a simple and green chemical vapor deposition (CVD) method where 0.01 wt% doped MnO2 is considered as a good candidate due to its promising electrical transport properties. Although there is at room-temperature, the maximum ZT is achievable 0.0075 for the 0.01 wt% Ag-doped sample at 300 K, which may be attributed to single crystal nanowire structure, together with effective number of charge carrier concentration caused by the Ag dopant. Ag-doped MnO2 single crystal nanowires provide a new possibility for green collecting energy at room-temperature.