Metal halide Perovskite nanocrystals as Additive to Enhance Thermoelectric Performance

Mariano Calcabrini^a, Yu Liu^a, Aziz Genc^b^,^d, Jordi Arbiol^b^,^e, Maksym Kovalenko^c^,^f, Maria Ibáñez^a

^aInstitute of Science and Technology Austria, Am Campus 1, 3400 Klosterneuburg, Austria

^bCatalan Institute of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (ICN2), CSIC and The Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology (BIST), Spain, 08193 Bellaterra, Barcelona, España, Bellaterra, Spain

^cETH Zurich, Laboratory of Inorganic Chemistry, Department of Chemistry & Applied Biosciences, Vladimir-Prelog-Weg, 1, Zürich, Switzerland

^dBartin University, Department of Metallurgy and Materials Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Turkey, Bartin, Turkey

^eInstitució Catalana de Recerca i Estudis Avançats (ICREA), Spain, Passeig Lluis Companys 23, Barcelona, Spain

^fEMPA - Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology, Überland Strasse, 129, Dübendorf, Switzerland

Materials for Sustainable Development Conference (MATSUS)
Proceedings of nanoGe Fall Meeting19 (NFM19)

#NCFun19. Fundamental Processes in Semiconductor Nanocrystals

Berlin, Germany, 2019 November 3rd - 8th

Organizers: Ivan Infante and Jonathan Owen

Poster, Mariano Calcabrini, 384
Publication date: 18th July 2019

Thermoelectric devices can convert heat into electricity based on the diffusion of charge carriers from a hot region to a cold one. The performance of these materials depends on the adimensional figure of merit ZT = σ.S².κ^-1, which means that to increase efficiency the strongly interrelated electrical conductivity (σ), Seebeck coefficient (S) and thermal conductivity (κ) have to be tuned.

A novel approach to prepare highly efficient thermoelectric materials is to start with nanocrystals and consolidate them into dense pellets. In contrast to a top-down approach where ingots are prepared by solid-state synthesis and then ground into small particles, the bottom-up methods provides more control and freedom over the materials structure and consequent properties. However, since nanocrystals undergo self-purification,¹ optimizing the charge carrier concentration via conventional doping strategies has been proven challenging.

One way to dope bottom-up processed pellets is to add, prior consolidation, a secondary class of nanocrystals as dopant.² Here we present a novel doping strategy which allows to simultaneously increase electrical conductivity and reduce lattice thermal conductivity in bottom-up processed bulk thermoelectric materials. The idea is to use thermally unstable nanocrystals that decompose during consolidation providing the precursor for the ionic doping while creating phonon scattering centers due to the effects of the material decomposition. In particular, we selected as secondary phase metal halide perovskite nanocrystals and show their effect on the electronic and thermal properties of lead chalcogenides.

References:

[1] Dalpian, G. M. & Chelikowsky, J. R. Self-Purification in Semiconductor Nanocrystals. Phys. Rev. Lett. 96, 226802 (2006

[2] Ibáñez, M. et al. High-performance thermoelectric nanocomposites from nanocrystal building blocks. Nat. Commun. (2016). doi:10.1038/ncomms10766

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