Enhancement in thermoelectric performance of bismuth telluride based alloys by multi-scale microstructural effects

Decoupling of interdependent thermoelectric parameters was considered as a crucial strategy to enhance the thermoelectric performance of bulk materials. Here multi-scale microstructural effects have been introduced by a simple hot deformation process to obtain high-performance n-type bismuth telluride based alloys. Highly preferred orientation enables a significant improvement in in-plane electrical conductivity. The donor-like effect (an interaction of antisite defects and vacancies), which can be adjusted by varying hot deformation temperature, was also considered responsible for the remarkable enhancement in power factor. Besides, the in-plane lattice thermal conductivity was greatly reduced by in situ nanostructures and high-density lattice defects generated during the hot deformation process. The present study experimentally demonstrates a successful combination of microscale texture enhancement, atomic scale lattice defects and donor-like effect and recrystallization induced nanostructures as a new approach to improve thermoelectric properties. These effects led to a maximum ZT of 0.95 for the Bi2Te2Se1 sample hot deformed at 823 K, about 80% improvement over that without hot deformation.