Enhancing thermoelectric performance through one-pot solution phase synthesis of Bi2S3 nanobundles

Nanostructuring has been successfully used to enhance the thermoelectric performance of Bi2S3 due to their low thermal conductivity. Bi2S3 nanobundles were successfully synthesized by using a one-pot solution phase synthesis method which is incredible facile and quick. The splitting crystal growth mechanism is the main growth mechanism for the formation of Bi2S3 nanobundles through observing the crystal growing process. From the comparisons of their thermoelectric performance with bulk Bi2S3, we found that Bi2S3 nanobundles exhibit higher figure-of-merit due to the strengthened phonon scattering and the low electrical resistivity. This study provides an effective approach to enhance thermoelectric efficiency by synthesizing nanobundles. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.