Crystallographically textured nanomaterials produced from the liquid phase sintering of BixSb₂-xTe₃ nanocrystal building blocks

Bottom-up approaches for producing bulk nanomaterials have traditionally lacked control over the crystallographic alignment of nanograins. This limitation has prevented nanocrystal-based nanomaterials from achieving optimized performances in numerous applications. Here we demonstrate the production...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Liu, Yu|||0000-0001-7313-6740, Zhang, Yu|||0000-0002-0332-0013, Ortega, Silvia|||0000-0002-3812-5146, Ibáñez, Maria|||0000-0001-5013-2843, Lim, Khak Ho|||0000-0003-3116-8589, Grau Carbonell, Albert, Martí-Sánchez, Sara|||0000-0003-4283-1489, Ng, Ka Ming, Arbiol i Cobos, Jordi|||0000-0002-0695-1726, Kovalenko, Maksym V.|||0000-0002-6396-8938, Cadavid, Doris|||0000-0002-1376-6078, Cabot i Codina, Andreu|||0000-0002-7533-3251
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Fecha de publicación:2018
País:España
Institución:Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
Repositorio:Dipòsit Digital de Documents de la UAB
Idioma:inglés
OAI Identifier:oai:ddd.uab.cat:215012
Acceso en línea:https://ddd.uab.cat/record/215012
https://dx.doi.org/urn:doi:10.1021/acs.nanolett.8b00263
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Bulk nano-materials
Commercial materials
Consolidation process
Controlled stoichiometry
Crystallographic textures
Optimized performance
Tellurium nanowires
Uniaxial pressures
Descripción
Sumario:Bottom-up approaches for producing bulk nanomaterials have traditionally lacked control over the crystallographic alignment of nanograins. This limitation has prevented nanocrystal-based nanomaterials from achieving optimized performances in numerous applications. Here we demonstrate the production of nanostructured BixSb₂-xTe₃ alloys with controlled stoichiometry and crystallographic texture through proper selection of the starting building blocks and the adjustment of the nanocrystal-to-nanomaterial consolidation process. In particular, we hot pressed disk-shaped BixSb₂-xTe₃ nanocrystals and tellurium nanowires using multiple pressure and release steps at a temperature above the tellurium melting point. We explain the formation of the textured nanomaterials though a solution-reprecipitation mechanism under a uniaxial pressure. Additionally, we further demonstrate these alloys to reach unprecedented thermoelectric figures of merit, up to ZT = 1.96 at 420 K, with an average value of ZT = 1.77 for the record material in the temperature range 320-500 K, thus potentially allowing up to 60% higher energy conversion efficiencies than commercial materials.