title: Rational synthesis of ultrathin n-type Bi2Te3 nanowires with enhanced thermoelectric properties.
abstract: A rational yet scalable solution phase method has been established, for the first time, to obtain n-type Bi(2)Te(3) ultrathin nanowires with an average diameter of 8 nm in high yield (up to 93%). Thermoelectric properties of bulk pellets fabricated by compressing the nanowire powder through spark plasma sintering have been investigated. Compared to the current commercial n-type Bi(2)Te(3)-based bulk materials, our nanowire devices exhibit an enhanced ZT of 0.96 peaked at 380 K due to a significant reduction of thermal conductivity derived from phonon scattering at the nanoscale interfaces in the bulk pellets, which corresponds to a 13% enhancement compared to that of the best n-type commercial Bi(2)Te(2.7)Se(0.3) single crystals (~0.85) and is comparable to the best reported result of n-type Bi(2)Te(2.7)Se(0.3) sample (ZT = 1.04) fabricated by the hot pressing of ball-milled powder. The uniformity and high yield of the nanowires provide a promising route to make significant contributions to the manufacture of nanotechnology-based thermoelectric power generation and solid-state cooling devices with superior performance in a reliable and a reproducible way.
authors: School of Chemical Engineering, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana, USA.
authors: Genqiang
authors: G
authors: Zhang
authors: Benjamin
authors: B
authors: Kirk
authors: Luis A
authors: LA
authors: Jauregui
authors: Haoran
authors: H
authors: Yang
authors: Xianfan
authors: X
authors: Xu
authors: Yong P
authors: YP
authors: Chen
authors: Yue
authors: Y
authors: Wu
mesh_terms: D001729:Bismuth / Q000737:chemistry*; D003460:Crystallization / Q000379:methods*; D004553:Electric Conductivity; D046911:Macromolecular Substances / Q000737:chemistry; D008422:Materials Testing; D008968:Molecular Conformation; D043942:Nanotubes / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000648:ultrastructure*; D010316:Particle Size; D012666:Semiconductors; D013499:Surface Properties; D013691:Tellurium / Q000737:chemistry*; D013814:Thermal Conductivity
chemical_list: D046911:Macromolecular Substances; C542787:bismuth telluride; D013691:Tellurium; D001729:Bismuth