Room temperature aqueous-based synthesis of copper-doped lead sulfide nanoparticles for thermoelectric application

A versatile, scalable, room temperature and surfactant-free route for the synthesis of metal chalcogenide nanoparticles in aqueous solution is detailed here for the production of PbS and Cu-doped PbS nanoparticles. Subsequently, nanoparticles are annealed in a reducing atmosphere to remove surface o...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Li, Mengyao|||0000-0002-9082-7938, Liu, Yu|||0000-0001-7313-6740, Zhang, Yu|||0000-0002-0332-0013, Chang, Cheng|||0000-0002-9515-4277, Zhang, Ting|||0000-0002-0317-9662, Yang, Dawei|||0000-0002-3842-8286, Xiao, Ke, Arbiol i Cobos, Jordi|||0000-0002-0695-1726, Ibáñez, Maria|||0000-0001-5013-2843, Cabot i Codina, Andreu|||0000-0002-7533-3251
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Fecha de publicación:2022
País:España
Institución:Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
Repositorio:Dipòsit Digital de Documents de la UAB
Idioma:inglés
OAI Identifier:oai:ddd.uab.cat:270830
Acceso en línea:https://ddd.uab.cat/record/270830
https://dx.doi.org/urn:doi:10.1016/j.cej.2021.133837
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:PbS
Aqueous synthesis
Nanoparticles
Thermoelectricity
Copper-doping
Descripción
Sumario:A versatile, scalable, room temperature and surfactant-free route for the synthesis of metal chalcogenide nanoparticles in aqueous solution is detailed here for the production of PbS and Cu-doped PbS nanoparticles. Subsequently, nanoparticles are annealed in a reducing atmosphere to remove surface oxide, and consolidated into dense polycrystalline materials by means of spark plasma sintering. By characterizing the transport properties of the sintered material, we observe the annealing step and the incorporation of Cu to play a key role in promoting the thermoelectric performance of PbS. The presence of Cu allows improving the electrical conductivity by increasing the charge carrier concentration and simultaneously maintaining a large charge carrier mobility, which overall translates into record power factors at ambient temperature, 2.3 mWmK. Simultaneously, the lattice thermal conductivity decreases with the introduction of Cu, leading to a record high ZT = 0.37 at room temperature and ZT = 1.22 at 773 K. Besides, a record average ZT = 0.76 is demonstrated in the temperature range 320-773 K for n-type Pb0.955Cu0.045S.