title: Solvothermal Synthesis of Tetrahedrite: Speeding Up the Process of Thermoelectric Material Generation.
abstract: Derivatives of synthetic tetrahedrite, Cu12Sb4S13, are receiving increasing attention in the thermoelectric community due to their exploitation of plentiful, relatively nontoxic elements, combined with a thermoelectric performance that rivals that of PbTe-based compounds. However, traditional synthetic methods require weeks of annealing at high temperatures (450-600 °C) and periodic regrinding of the samples. Here we report a solvothermal method to produce tetrahedrite that requires only 1 day of heating at a relatively low temperature (155 °C). This allows preparation of multiple samples at once and is potentially scalable. The solvothermal material described herein demonstrates a dimensionless figure of merit (ZT) vs temperature curve comparable to that of solid-state tetrahedrite, achieving the same ZT of 0.63 at ∼720 K. As with the materials from solid-state synthesis, products from this rapid solvothermal synthesis can be improved by mixing in a 1:1 molar ratio with the Zn-containing natural mineral, tennantite, to achieve 0.9 mol equiv of Zn. This leads to a 36% increase in ZT at ∼720 K for solvothermal tetrahedrite, to 0.85.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, Wayne State University , Detroit, Michigan 48201, United States.
authors.forename: Derak J
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: James
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, Michigan State University , East Lansing, Michigan 48824, United States.
authors.forename: Xu
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Lu
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, Michigan State University , East Lansing, Michigan 48824, United States.
authors.forename: Donald T
authors.initials: DT
authors.lastname: Morelli
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, Wayne State University , Detroit, Michigan 48201, United States.
authors.forename: Stephanie L
authors.initials: SL
authors.lastname: Brock
keywords: Cu12Sb4S13; ZT; mineral; tennantite; zinc doping