Le Thanh Hung

Discovery of high-performance low-cost n-type Mg3Sb2-based thermoelectric materials with multi-valley conduction bands

Widespread application of thermoelectric devices for waste heat recovery requires low-cost high-performance materials. The currently available n-type thermoelectric materials are limited either by their low efficiencies or by being based on expensive, scarce or toxic elements. Here we report a low-cost n-type material, Te-doped Mg3Sb1.5Bi0.5, that exhibits a very high figure of merit zT ranging from 0.56 to 1.65 at 300−725 K. Using combined theoretical prediction and experimental validation, we show that the high thermoelectric performance originates from the significantly enhanced power factor because of the multi-valley band behaviour dominated by a unique near-edge conduction band with a sixfold valley degeneracy. This makes Te-doped Mg3Sb1.5Bi0.5 a promising candidate for the low- and intermediate-temperature thermoelectric applications.

Effects of spark plasma sintering conditions on the anisotropic thermoelectric properties of bismuth antimony telluride

Bismuth antimony telluride (BixSb2−xTe3, 0.4 < x< 0.6) is one of the best and most-used p-type semiconductor materials for near-room-temperature thermoelectric power generation. In this work, p-type Bi0.4Sb1.6Te3 samples were prepared under various conditions (temperature, holding time, and ramp-rate) using spark plasma sintering (SPS). The effects of SPS conditions on the anisotropic thermoelectric properties and microstructure evolutions were systematically investigated. The change of sintering temperature showed stronger influence than other sintering parameters to the resulting thermoelectric properties. Samples sintered over the temperature range between 653 K and 773 K showed significant differences in the degrees of orientations. The change was mainly caused by grain growth and re-orientation. Despite of the anisotropy, zT value as high as 1.2 to 1.3 was achieved over the temperature range of 300 to 360 K by directly using commercial power sintered at 723 and 773 K. The sintering profiles and microstructure evolutions during SPS were illustrated and the thermoelectric properties as a function of the degrees of orientations were shown and discussed in detail.

Scandium-doped zinc cadmium oxide as a new stable n-type oxide thermoelectric material

Scandium-doped zinc cadmium oxide (Sc-doped ZnCdO) is proposed as a new n-type oxide thermoelectric material. The material is sintered in air to maintain the oxygen stoichiometry and avoid instability issues. The successful alloying of CdO with ZnO at a molar ratio of 1 : 9 significantly reduced the thermal conductivity by up to 7-fold at room temperature. By carefully selecting the Sc-dopant concentrations, a high power factor of 7.1 × 10−4 W m−1 K−2 at 1173 K could be obtained. Therefore, the highest ZT ∼ 0.3 at 1173 K was achieved for the Zn0.9Cd0.1Sc0.01O1.015 sample, and it has so far one of the highest ZT values among those reported for ZnO based thermoelectric materials over the temperature range, e.g., its ZT value at 300 K, which is 0.012, is over 1 order of magnitude higher than that of the state-of-the-art nanostructured Al-doped ZnO, which is 0.0013. It suggests that this material is a good candidate for improving the overall conversion efficiencies in oxide thermoelectric modules. Meanwhile, Sc-doped ZnCdO is robust in air at high temperatures, whereas other n-type materials, such as Al-doped ZnO, will experience rapid degradation of their electrical conductivity and ZT.

On the Challenges of Reducing Contact Resistances in Thermoelectric Generators Based on Half-Heusler Alloys

A method using fast hot pressing to join half-Heusler (HH) thermoelectric materials directly to an electrical current collector (Ag electrode) without using a third filler material is introduced. The compositions of the HH alloys used are Hf0.5Zr0.5CoSn0.2Sb0.8 and Ti0.6Hf0.4NiSn for p- and n-type, respectively. Using this method, the quality of the HH–electrode contacts is improved due to their low electrical contact resistance and less reaction–diffusion layer. The microstructure and chemical composition of the joints were examined using a scanning electron microscope equipped with energy-dispersive x-ray analysis. The electrical characteristics of the interfaces at the contacts were studied based on electrical contact resistance and Seebeck scanning microprobe measurements. In this paper, we show that joining the HH to a Ag electrode directly using fast hot pressing resulted in lower contact resistance and better performance compared with the method of using active brazing filler alloy.

Microstructure and chemical data of the thermoelectric ZnSb material after joining to metallic electrodes and heat treatment

The data presented in this article are related to the research article entitled: “Solder free joining as a highly effective method for making contact between thermoelectric materials and metallic electrodes” (Malik et al., 2017) [1]. This article presents microstructure obtained by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and chemical analysis by energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX) point measurements of the thermoelectric ZnSb legs after joining to metallic electrodes using solder (Zn-2Al) and free-soldering methods.