Published March 18, 2011
| public
Journal Article
Self-Tuning the Carrier Concentration of PbTe/Ag_2 Te Composites with Excess Ag for High Thermoelectric Performance
Abstract
Thermoelectric materials can be optimized by tuning the carrier concentration with chemical doping. However, because the optimum dopant concentration typically increases with temperature, the optimum efficiency can not normally be achieved for a uniform material in a temperature gradient. Here, we show Ag-doped PbTe/Ag_2Te composites exhibit high thermoelectric performance (∼50% greater than La-doped composites) because of a temperature induced gradient in the doping concentration caused by the temperature-dependent solubility of Ag in the PbTe matrix. This demonstrates a new mechanism to achieve a higher thermoelectric efficiency afforded by a given material system, and should be applicable to other thermoelectric materials.
Additional Information
© 2011 Wiley-VCH Verlag. Received: December 20, 2010. Revised: February 2, 2011. Article first published online: 18 Feb. 2011. This work is supported by DARPA Nano Materials Program and NASA–Jet Propulsion Laboratory.Additional details
- Eprint ID
- 24327
- DOI
- 10.1002/aenm.201000072
- Resolver ID
- CaltechAUTHORS:20110707-081712545
- Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Nano Materials Program
- NASA/JPL
- Created
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2011-07-11Created from EPrint's datestamp field
- Updated
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2021-11-09Created from EPrint's last_modified field