title: Nanostructured Bi(2-x)Cu(x)S3 bulk materials with enhanced thermoelectric performance.
abstract: Nanostructured Bi(2-x)Cu(x)S(3) (x = 0, 0.002, 0.005, 0.007, 0.01, 0.03) thermoelectric polycrystals were fabricated by combining mechanical alloying (MA) and spark plasma sintering (SPS) methods. The effect of Cu content on the microstructure and thermoelectric property of Bi(2-x)Cu(x)S(3) bulk samples was investigated. It was found that the subtle tailoring of Cu content could reduce both the electrical resistivity and the thermal conductivity at the same time, and consequently enhancing the thermoelectric property. A low electrical resistivity of 1.34 × 10(-4)Ω m(-1) and a low thermal conductivity of 0.52 W m(-1) K(-1) were obtained for the Bi(1.995)Cu(0.005)S(3) sample at 573 K. The low thermal conductivity is supposed to be due to the nanoscopic Cu-rich regions embedded in the host matrix. A peak ZT value of 0.34 at 573 K was achieved for the Bi(1.995)Cu(0.005)S(3) composition, which is the highest value in the Bi(2)S(3) system reported so far.
authors.affiliation: Beijing Key Lab of New Energy Materials and Technology, School of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Science and Technology Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Zhen-Hua
authors.initials: ZH
authors.lastname: Ge
authors.forename: Bo-Ping
authors.initials: BP
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Yong
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Jing-Feng
authors.initials: JF
authors.lastname: Li