Synthesis of Nanostructured Antimony Telluride for Thermoelectric Applications
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Synthesis of Nanostructured Antimony Telluride for Thermoelectric Applications Yichen Zhao,1 Abhilash Sugunan,2 Mamoun Muhammed,1 Muhammet S. Toprak 1 1 Department of Materials and Nano Physics, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, SE 16 440, Kista-Stockholm, Sweden. 2 Chemistry, Materials and Surfaces Unit, SP Technical Research Institute of Sweden, SE 114 86, Stockholm, Sweden
ABSTRACT Thermoelectric (TE) materials have been studied during past decades since they can generate electricity directly from waste heat. Antimony chalcogenides (Sb2M3, M = S, Se, Te) are well known as one of the promising candidates among the inorganic TE materials. We report on the synthesis of Sb2Te3 nanoparticle via thermolysis method. A systematic study was done to investigate the effect of reaction time and ratio between the precursors as well as the method of cooling on the morphology and composition of obtained nanoparticles. The ratio between precursors was varied to study the effect on the morphology. Furthermore, the high purity phase Sb2Te3 was obtained by a rapid cooling process. INTRODUCTION Thermoelectric (TE) materials have attracted substantial attention during past decades due to their capability of directly converting waste heat into electricity [1]. Among all the inorganic TE materials, antimony chalcogenides (Sb2M3, M = S, Se, Te) are known due to their narrow band gap with potentially good transport properties, making them promising for TE devices at ambient temperature region [2,3]. There are many approaches to synthesize the antimony chalcogenide, including electrochemical deposition [4], co-precipitation [5,6], microwave assisted synthesis [7–9], etc. These synthesis methods either require complex and expensive equipments, which increase the cost, or require long time processing route which contains several process steps. On the other hand, thermolysis synthesis has been reported to have a short reaction duration, simple reaction setup, high reproducibility as well as high yield, which is considered as one of the most promising synthesis methods for scaled up production [10–12]. Here we report on the synthesis of Sb2Te3 via thermolysis method. A systematic study was done to investigate the influence of reaction durations on the morphology of the Sb2Te3 nanoparticles. The ratio between precursors was also varied to observe the effect on the morphology. In addition, impurities of Te nanowire were found by a slow cooling process while Sb2Te3 nanoflakes were obtained by fast quenching. EXPERIMENT Preparation of stock solution: 1.46 g Sb2O3 powder and 16 mL of oleic acid (90%) were added into a three-neck flask. The mixture was heated up to 180°C for more than 12h under N2 flow until the solution became transparent. Afterwards the obtained solution (Sb-oleate) was cooled down to the room temperature. TOP-Te was made similarly with 1.28 g Te (99.8%)
powder and 18 mL of trioctylphosphine (TOP; 90%) at 200°C, for 2 hours. Both of the solutions were filtered and then stored in sealed glass vials under N2 atmosphere. All che
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