High-performance zinc antimonide thermoelectric thin films achieved by a layer-by-layer combination reaction approach
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High‑performance zinc antimonide thermoelectric thin films achieved by a layer‑by‑layer combination reaction approach Zhuang‑hao Zheng1 · Dong Yang1 · Xiao‑lan Huang1 · Fu Li1 · Yue‑Xing Chen1 · Guang‑xing Liang1 · Jing‑ting Luo1 · Ping Fan1 Received: 6 July 2020 / Accepted: 12 August 2020 © Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2020
Abstract Zinc antimonide (Zn–Sb) is considered as a good candidate to replace the traditional TE materials due to its low cost, nontoxic, and high abundance of elements. In this work, layer-by-layer thin films were fabricated by sputtering Zn on the Sb precursor layer with a magnetron sputtering method, and an annealing process is performed on thin films to engage a selfassembled growth of Zn–Sb films. It is found that Zn–Sb film with good crystallinity was obtained after annealing at 300 ℃ for 10 min. Then, the influence of Zn layer thickness and annealing time on the structural, compositional, and thermoelectric properties for the Zn–Sb thin films were investigated. As a result, the thin film with mixed Zn4Sb3/ZnSb phases achieved a high power factor of 3.42 µWcm−1 K−2 when the Zn layer thickness was 600 nm. Additionally, the power factor was further optimized to 3.80 µWcm−1 K−2 after prolonging the annealing time up to 15 min.
1 Introduction Thermoelectric (TE) materials have attracted great attention due to their potential applications in power generation and solid-state refrigeration [1, 2]. The performance of TE materials is generally evaluated by a dimensionless figure of merit ZT = (S2σ/κ)T where S, σ, κ and T are the Seebeck coefficient, electrical conductivity, thermal conductivity, and the absolute temperature, respectively [3], and S2σ is known as the power factor (PF). Recently, TE devices based on thin films have been attracting much attention because the devices are miniature and convenient enough to be promising self-power sources which can generate the electricity from the temperature difference between electronic component and the surrounding environment [4]. Therefore, developing high-performance thin films with low cost and non-toxic is an urgent need and it has been one of hot issues in TE field. In recent decades, various new eco-friendly bulk thermoelectric materials with high ZT values in a wide range of operating temperature have been continuously reported [5–7]. Among them, non-toxic and earth-abundant zinc * Yue‑Xing Chen [email protected] 1
Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Advanced Thin Films and Applications, College of Physics and Optoelectronic Engineering, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen 518060, China
antimonide binary systems, including ZnSb and β-Zn4Sb3, have been widely studied. Until now, the ZTs over 1.0 of zinc antimonide compounds have been reported [8], which can be compared to the state-of-the-art Bi2Te3-based materials. For example, Chu et al. reported that the theoretical prediction of the maximum ZT of ZnSb will achieve 1.18 at 600 K, indicating its potential in TE applications [9]. Ur et al. synthesized the Z n4S
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