Improvement of Thermoelectric Properties of In4Se3 Bulk Materials with Cu Nanoinclusions

In4Se3 bulk materials with Cu nanoinclusions, which were introduced by thermal decomposition of Cu(OAc)2, were prepared by mechanical alloying and subsequent hot-press process. Effect of Cu nanoparticles content on the microstructure and thermoelectric properties of the composites were investigated in detail. It shows that Cu particles are about 30 nm in size and distribute homogeneously in the In4Se3 matrix when the content of Cu(OAc)2 is not more than 0.3 wt%. The thermal conductivities of the composites were greatly reduced due to the enhanced phonon scattering by nanoinclusions, and their power factors were also enhanced with addition of Cu nanoinclusions. A maximum ZT of 0.97 at 723 K was obtained when the addition content of Cu(OAc)2 was 0.3 wt%