Enhanced thermoelectric performance of xMoS2-TiS2 nanocomposites

A series of nanocomposite ceramics of micro-scale TiS2 containing MoS2 nanoparticles mainly embedded along grain boundaries were prepared and investigated attempting to enhance the thermoelectric performance of TiS2. Results show that, compared with that of pristine TiS2 ceramic, the power factor of the composites was improved by virtues of enhanced Seebeck coefficient that should be brought out due to reduced carrier concentration and electron scattering or filtering at the MoS2/matrix interfaces. Moreover, thanks to the significantly reduced thermal conductivity that originated from the intensified multi-scale phonon scattering and the decreased electronic contribution, a maximal ZT value of 0.29 at 573 K was obtained in the sample with 3 mol % MoS2, which is 60% higher than that of pristine TiS2. These findings promise nanocomposite as an effective approach to suppress its thermal conduction without degradation of power factor and thus to enhance the performance of TiS2-based thermoelectrics. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.