Thermoelectric properties of copper selenide with ordered selenium layer and disordered copper layer

Abstract Thermoelectric figure-of-merit (ZT) of ∼1.6 at 700 °C is achieved in β-phase copper selenide (Cu2Se) made by ball milling and hot pressing. The β-phase of such material possesses a natural superlattice-like structure that combines ordered selenium (Se) and disordered copper (Cu) layers in its unit cell, resulting in a low lattice thermal conductivity of 0.4–0.5 W m−1 K−1. A λ-shaped specific heat peak indicates a phase transition from cubic β-phase to tetragonal α-phase at around 140 °C upon cooling and vice versa. An abnormal decrease in specific heat with increasing temperature was also observed due to the increased random motion of disordered Cu atoms. These features indicate that β-phase Cu2Se could be potentially an interesting thermoelectric material, competing with other conventional thermoelectric materials.

[1]  D. Rowe.  CRC Handbook of Thermoelectrics , 1995 .

[2]  George S. Nolas,et al.  Semiconducting Ge clathrates: Promising candidates for thermoelectric applications , 1998 .

[3]  Miss A.O. Penney.  (b) , 1974, The New Yale Book of Quotations.

[4]  Kazuo T. Nakamura,et al.  High-Temperature Thermoelectric Properties of NaxCoO2-δ Single Crystals , 2001 .

[5]  G. J. Snyder,et al.  Complex thermoelectric materials. , 2008, Nature materials.

[6]  G. J. Snyder,et al.  Disordered zinc in Zn4Sb3 with phonon-glass and electron-crystal thermoelectric properties , 2004, Nature materials.

[7]  Ali Shakouri,et al.  Nanostructured Thermoelectrics: Big Efficiency Gains from Small Features , 2010, Advanced materials.

[8]  Brian C. Sales,et al.  Filled Skutterudite Antimonides: A New Class of Thermoelectric Materials. , 1996 .

[9]  R. Venkatasubramanian,et al.  Thin-film thermoelectric devices with high room-temperature figures of merit , 2001, Nature.

[10]  Miaofang Chi,et al.  Multiple-filled skutterudites: high thermoelectric figure of merit through separately optimizing electrical and thermal transports. , 2011, Journal of the American Chemical Society.

[11]  K. Koumoto,et al.  Complex Oxide Materials for Potential Thermoelectric Applications , 2006 .

[12]  G. A. Slack,et al.  New Materials and Performance Limits for Thermoelectric Cooling , 1995 .

[13]  M. P. Walsh,et al.  Quantum Dot Superlattice Thermoelectric Materials and Devices , 2002, Science.

[14]  A. Dexter,et al.  Temperature dependence of heat capacity and viscosity of non-associated liquids , 1968 .

[15]  Timothy P. Hogan,et al.  Cubic AgPbmSbTe2+m: Bulk Thermoelectric Materials with High Figure of Merit. , 2004 .

[16]  S. Hull,et al.  Superionics: crystal structures and conduction processes , 2004 .

[17]  S. Kashida,et al.  X-ray study of the average structures of Cu2Se and Cu1.8S in the room temperature and the high temperature phases , 1991 .

[18]  M. Dresselhaus,et al.  High-Thermoelectric Performance of Nanostructured Bismuth Antimony Telluride Bulk Alloys , 2008, Science.

[19]  A. Maignan,et al.  Order–Disorder Transition in AgCrSe2: a New Route to Efficient Thermoelectrics , 2011 .

[20]  G. J. Snyder,et al.  Enhancement of Thermoelectric Efficiency in PbTe by Distortion of the Electronic Density of States , 2008, Science.

[21]  Heng Wang,et al.  Convergence of electronic bands for high performance bulk thermoelectrics , 2011, Nature.

[22]  Kostya Trachenko,et al.  Heat capacity of liquids: An approach from the solid phase , 2008, 0807.3871.

[23]  R. Almukhametov,et al.  Ionic conductivity and chemical diffusion in Ag2SeCu2Se mixed conductor compounds , 1989 .

[24]  Gang Chen,et al.  Recent advances in thermoelectric nanocomposites , 2012 .

[25]  A. Leadbetter.  Anharmonic effects in the thermodynamic properties of solids II. Analysis of data for lead and aluminium , 1968 .

[26]  M. Dresselhaus,et al.  New Directions for Low‐Dimensional Thermoelectric Materials , 2007 .

[27]  Gang Chen,et al.  Thermal conductivity and ballistic-phonon transport in the cross-plane direction of superlattices , 1998 .

[28]  Gang Chen,et al.  Size and Interface Effects on Thermal Conductivity of Superlattices and Periodic Thin-Film Structures , 1997 .

[29]  F. Grønvold,et al.  Silver(I) sulfide: Ag2S Heat capacity from 5 to 1000 K, thermodynamic properties, and transitions , 1986 .

[30]  G. Kotliar,et al.  Peierls distortion as a route to high thermoelectric performance in In4Se3-δ crystals , 2009, Nature.

[31]  G. Grimvall.  The Heat Capacity of Liquid Metals , 1975 .

[32]  A. Tari,et al.  The Specific heat of matter at low temperatures , 2003 .