High thermoelectric performance enabled by convergence of nested conduction bands in Pb7Bi4Se13 with low thermal conductivity

Lei Hu (), Yue-Wen Fang, Feiyu Qin, Xun Cao, Xiaoxu Zhao, Yubo Luo, Durga Venkata Maheswar Repaka, Wenbo Luo, Ady Suwardi, Thomas Soldi, Umut Aydemir, Yizhong Huang, Zheng Liu, Kedar Hippalgaonkar, G. Jeffrey Snyder, Jianwei Xu and Qingyu Yan ()
Additional contact information
Lei Hu: Nanyang Technological University
Yue-Wen Fang: Tokyo Institute of Technology
Feiyu Qin: Tokyo Institute of Technology
Xun Cao: Nanyang Technological University
Xiaoxu Zhao: Nanyang Technological University
Yubo Luo: Nanyang Technological University
Durga Venkata Maheswar Repaka: Institute of Materials Research and Engineering, A*STAR (Agency for Science, Technology and Research)
Wenbo Luo: North China Electric Power University
Ady Suwardi: Institute of Materials Research and Engineering, A*STAR (Agency for Science, Technology and Research)
Thomas Soldi: Northwestern University
Umut Aydemir: Koc University, Sariyer
Yizhong Huang: Nanyang Technological University
Zheng Liu: Nanyang Technological University
Kedar Hippalgaonkar: Nanyang Technological University
G. Jeffrey Snyder: Northwestern University
Jianwei Xu: Institute of Materials Research and Engineering, A*STAR (Agency for Science, Technology and Research)
Qingyu Yan: Nanyang Technological University

Nature Communications, 2021, vol. 12, issue 1, 1-10

Abstract: Abstract Thermoelectrics enable waste heat recovery, holding promises in relieving energy and environmental crisis. Lillianite materials have been long-term ignored due to low thermoelectric efficiency. Herein we report the discovery of superior thermoelectric performance in Pb7Bi4Se13 based lillianites, with a peak figure of merit, zT of 1.35 at 800 K and a high average zT of 0.92 (450–800 K). A unique quality factor is established to predict and evaluate thermoelectric performances. It considers both band nonparabolicity and band gaps, commonly negligible in conventional quality factors. Such appealing performance is attributed to the convergence of effectively nested conduction bands, providing a high number of valley degeneracy, and a low thermal conductivity, stemming from large lattice anharmonicity, low-frequency localized Einstein modes and the coexistence of high-density moiré fringes and nanoscale defects. This work rekindles the vision that Pb7Bi4Se13 based lillianites are promising candidates for highly efficient thermoelectric energy conversion.

Date: 2021
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-021-25119-z Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:12:y:2021:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-021-25119-z

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-021-25119-z

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().