Co-doping effect on the electronic properties of nonstoichiometric tin telluride
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MRS Advances © 2019 Materials Research Society DOI: 10.1557/adv.2019.254
Co-doping effect on the electronic properties of nonstoichiometric tin telluride Dana Ben-Ayoun and Yaniv Gelbstein Department of Materials Engineering, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva 84105, Israel; Correspondence: [email protected]
ABSTRACT
The search for nontoxic compositions in the thermoelectric field has motivated many researches to find alternatives to the toxic Pb-based systems, capable of reaching their high conversion efficiency. SnTe is gaining much attention during the past years due to its superior eco-friendly character, and its very similar crystal and band structure to that of PbTe. These makes SnTe a promising compound with great potential to answer the demand and use as a fair thermoelectric candidate. Most of the recently published studies mainly discuss the stoichiometric SnTe alloy. Only several focus on the effect of introducing excess tin/tellurium to the system. For that reason, this research aims to investigate in detail the nonstoichiometric SnxTe1-x co-doped by bismuth and indium/iodine, in an attempt to optimize the electronic properties.
INTRODUCTION: In the last decades, global climate changes, caused by combustion of fossil fuels and greenhouse gases emission, became a major environmental concern, accompanied with the dilution of conventional energy resources, raising the need for a renewable energy alternatives. Thermoelectricity dealing with this concern, is based on a direct conversion of waste heat into usable electrical energy; even a partial conversion of this waste heat will get us one step closer towards a cleaner and greener environment. This goal has been achieved by thermoelectric converters and successfully initiated by the development of various highly efficient thermoelectric material classes. Such materials require a unique combination of the electrical and lattice properties (Seebeck coefficient, α, electrical resistivity, ρ, electronic thermal conductivity, κe, and lattice thermal conductivity, κl), enabling the highest possible thermoelectric figure of merit values ZT = α2T/[ρ(κe+κl)], where T is the absolute temperature, for achieving significant conversion efficiencies.
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Among the IV-VI -based chalcogenides and their alloys (known as among the most efficient thermoelectric alloys for intermediate working temperatures of up to 600 °C), lead-based compounds are among the most commonly used thermoelectric materials. However, lead toxicity makes them inferior when considered for wide usage and thus environment-friendly alternatives are still required. The lead-free, tin telluride semiconducting compound has recently gained growing attention due to its crystal structure and band structure similarity to lead telluride. However,
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