title: Enhanced thermoelectric performance of β-Zn4Sb3 based nanocomposites through combined effects of density of states resonance and carrier energy filtering.
abstract: It is a major challenge to elevate the thermoelectric figure of merit ZT of materials through enhancing their power factor (PF) and reducing the thermal conductivity at the same time. Experience has shown that engineering of the electronic density of states (eDOS) and the energy filtering mechanism (EFM) are two different effective approaches to improve the PF. However, the successful combination of these two methods is elusive. Here we show that the PF of β-Zn4Sb3 can greatly benefit from both effects. Simultaneous resonant distortion in eDOS via Pb-doping and energy filtering via introduction of interface potentials result in a ~40% increase of PF and an approximately twofold reduction of the lattice thermal conductivity due to interface scattering. Accordingly, the ZT of β-Pb0.02Zn3.98Sb3 with 3 vol.% of Cu3SbSe4 nanoinclusions reaches a value of 1.4 at 648 K. The combination of eDOS engineering and EFM would potentially facilitate the development of high-performance thermoelectric materials.
authors.affiliation: Key laboratory of Materials Physics, Institute of Solid State Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 230031 Hefei, PR~China.|Institute of Materials Science, University of Stuttgart, 70569 Stuttgart, Germany.
authors.forename: Tianhua
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Zou
authors.affiliation: Key laboratory of Materials Physics, Institute of Solid State Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 230031 Hefei, PR~China.
authors.forename: Xiaoying
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Qin
authors.affiliation: Key laboratory of Materials Physics, Institute of Solid State Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 230031 Hefei, PR~China.|University of Science and Technology of China, 230026 Hefei, PR~China.
authors.forename: Yongsheng
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Sciences at Microscale, Department of Physics, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, P.R. China.|Collaborative Innovation Center of Advanced Microstructures, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210093, PR~China.
authors.forename: Xiaoguang
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Key laboratory of Materials Physics, Institute of Solid State Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 230031 Hefei, PR~China.|University of Science and Technology of China, 230026 Hefei, PR~China.
authors.forename: Zhi
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Zeng
authors.affiliation: Key laboratory of Materials Physics, Institute of Solid State Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 230031 Hefei, PR~China.
authors.forename: Di
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Key laboratory of Materials Physics, Institute of Solid State Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 230031 Hefei, PR~China.
authors.forename: Jian
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Key laboratory of Materials Physics, Institute of Solid State Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 230031 Hefei, PR~China.
authors.forename: Hongxing
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Xin
authors.affiliation: Institute of Materials Science, University of Stuttgart, 70569 Stuttgart, Germany.
authors.forename: Wenjie
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Xie
authors.affiliation: Institute of Materials Science, University of Stuttgart, 70569 Stuttgart, Germany.
authors.forename: Anke
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Weidenkaff