Realizing High Figure of Merit in Phase-Separated Polycrystalline Sn1-xPbxSe

Solid-state thermoelectric technology, interconverting heat to electrical energy, offers a promising solution for relaxing global energy problems. A high dimensionless figure of merit ZT is desirable for high-efficiency thermoelectric power generation. To date, thermoelectric materials research has focused on increasing the material's ZT. Here we first fabricated phase-separated Sn1-xPbxSe materials by hydro thermal synthesis. We demonstrate that the simultaneous optimization of the power factor and significant reduction in thermal conductivity can be achieved in the phase-separated Sn1-xPb Se material. The introduction of the PbSe phase contributes to improvement of the electrical conductivity and power factor of the SnSe phase. Meanwhile, nanoscale precipitates and mesoscale grains define all-scale hierarchical architectures to scattering phonons, leading to low lattice thermal conductivity. These two favorable factors lead to remarkably high, thermoelectric performance with ZT similar to 1.7 at 873 K in polycrystalline SnSe + 1% PbSe along the pressing direction, which is a record-high ZT for SnSe polycrystals. These findings highlight the prospects of realizing highly effective solid-state thermoelectric devices.