Zhu Pinwen

High Thermoelectric Properties of PbTe Doped with Bi2Te3 and Sb2Te3

The composition-dependent thermoelectric properties of lead telluride (PbTe) doped with bismuth telluride (Bi2Te3), antimony telluride (Sb2Te3) and (BiSb)2Te3 have been studied at room temperature. All the samples exhibit small thermal conductivity. The figures of merit, 7.63, 1.03 and 8.97×10−4, have been obtained in PbTe with these dopants, respectively. These values are several times higher than those of PbTe containing other dopants with small grain sizes. The high thermoelectric performance is explained by electronic topological transition induced by alloying. The results indicate that these dopants are effective to enhance the thermoelectric performance of PbTe.

In-Situ Measurement of Electrical Character of PbTe at High Pressure and High Temperature

There is a widespread interest in lead telluride (PbTe) as a good thermoelectric material. We report the temperature dependence of thermopower S(T) and resistance R(T) for PbTe at the different pressures of from 1.8 GPa to 5 GPa obtained by using the cubic anvil high pressure apparatus. With increasing pressure, R(T) and S(T) decrease. The effect of pressure on R(T) is larger than that on S(T). The power factor that is determined by thermopower and resistivity increases with increasing pressure. This method is an efficient tool for synthesizing good thermoelectric materials at high pressure and high temperature.

Doping effects on structural and magnetic evolutions of orthoferrite SmFe(1−x)AlxO3

The structural and magnetic properties of SmFeO3 with B site substitution of non-magnetic atom Al are investigated. The x-ray diffraction patterns show that SmFe(1−x)AlxO3 remains an orthorhombic structure within the whole doping range, and the unit-cell volume decreases monotonically with the increase of doped Al concentration. Besides, the octahedral tilting distortions of FeO6 are found to be alleviated while the tolerance factor increases. However, the relationship between the lattice parameters and Al concentration is observed to deviate from Vegards rule, and this may be caused by magnetostriction effects. For the doping content values in a range 0 ≤ x ≤ 0.6, the ferromagnetism, antiferromagnetism, and paramagnetism are observed to occur continuously. Moreover, the magnetization and the spin reorientation temperature (Tk) decrease monotonically as Al content value increases. With the doping content values being x = 0.8 and 1.0, these compounds only show paramagnetic behavior.

In-situ high pressure X-ray diffraction studies of orthoferrite SmFeO3

The high-pressure behaviors of SmFeO3 are investigated by angle-dispersive synchrotron X-ray powder diffraction under a pressure of up to 40.3 GPa at room temperature. The crystal structure of SmFeO3 remains stable at up to the highest pressure. The different pressure coefficients of the normalized axial compressibility are obtained to be βa = 0.60 × 10−3 GPa−1, βb = 0.79 × 10m3 GPa−1, βc = 1.28 × 10−3 GPa−1, and the bulk modulus (B0) is determined to be 293(3) GPa by fitting the pressure-volume data using the Birch—Murnaghan equation of state. Furthermore, the larger compressibility of the FeO6 octahedra suggests the evolution of the orthorhombic structure towards higher symmetry configuration at high pressures.

High-pressure synthesis, characterization, and equation of state of double perovskite Sr2CoFeO6

Double perovskite oxide Sr2CoFeO6 (SCFO) has been obtained using a high-pressure and high-temperature (HPHT) synthesis method. Valence states of Fe and Co and their distributions in SCFO were examined with X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. The electric transport behavior of SCFO showed a semiconductor behavior that can be well described by Mott?s law for variable-range hopping conduction. The structural stability of SCFO was investigated at pressures up to 31 GPa with no pressure-induced phase transition found. Bulk modulus B0 was determined to be 163(2) GPa by fitting the pressure?volume data to the Birch?Murnaghan equation of state.

Preparation of Functional Gradient Material n-PbTe with Continuous Carrier Concentration

Functional gradient materials (FGMs) in thermoelectric materials can raise the maximal power output of the thermoelectric generator (TEG). We report an FGM of n-PbTe with continuous carrier concentration successfully prepared by a unidirectional solidification method. The continuous carrier concentration for n-PbTe was optimized by different dopants of PbI2, Al and Zr and solidifying temperature. The effective maximum outputting power for continuous FGM PbTe is about 30% larger than that for jointed FGM PbTe.

Dielectric Properties of Eu-Doped CaCu 3 Ti 4 O 12 with Different Compensation Mechanisms

To get a better understanding of the influence of rare-earth element doping, CaCu3Ti4O12 (CCTO) samples with a partial substitution of Ca with Eu with different compensation mechanisms were designed and prepared by solid-state reaction. All the ceramics were single phase, while the dielectric constants and thermally activated energy values for dielectric relaxation in Eu-doped ceramics were both lower than those of CCTO. Ca0.875Eu0.1Cu3Ti4O12 (CECT1) exhibited a slight decrease in both the permittivity and electric resistance of grain boundaries compared with CCTO, while Ca0.85Eu0.1Cu3Ti4O12 (CECT2) underwent a sharp decrease in permittivity associated with an abnormally large resistance. The different dielectric behavior indicates that the dielectric properties of CCTO are sensitive to the valence states of cations and defects. The variation of permittivity is related to the localization of carriers, which, according to the XPS results, should be caused by the presence of oxygen vacancies. The formation of defect complexes between cations and oxygen vacancies leads to the increase in resistance and prevents the hopping between Cu+ and Cu2+, which is an important source of the polarization in grain boundaries.

In-situ high-pressure behaviors of double-perovskite Sr2ZnTeO6

Structural and spectroscopic properties of Sr2ZnTeO6 (SZTO) were investigated by angle-dispersive synchrotron X-ray powder diffraction and Raman spectroscopy in a diamond anvil cell up to 31 GPa at room temperature. Although SZTO remained stable up to the highest pressure, the different pressure coefficients of the normalized axial compressibility were obtained as βab = 8.16 × 10−3 GPa−1 and βc = 7.61 × 10−3 GPa−1. The bulk modulus B0 was determined to be 190(1) GPa by fitting the pressure-volume data using the Birch-Murnaghan equation of state. All the observed Raman modes exhibited a broadening effect under high pressure. The vibrational band v1 around 765 cm−1, which is associated with the Te—O stretching mode in the basal plane of the TeO6 octahedron had the largest pressure coefficient, and the Gruneisen parameters for all the observed phonon modes were also calculated and presented. These parameters could be used to measure the amount of uniaxial or biaxial strain, providing a fundamental tool for monitoring the magnitude of the shift of phonon frequencies with strains.

High-pressure Raman study of MgV2O6 synthesized at high pressure and high temperature

A new structural phase of MgV2O6 was obtained by a high-pressure, high-temperature (HPHT) synthesis method. The new phase was investigated by the Rietveld analysis of X-ray powder diffraction data, showing space group Pbcn (No. 60) symmetry and a = 13.6113(6) A (1 A = 0.1 nm), b = 5.5809(1) A, c = 4.8566(3) A, V = 368.93(2) A3 (Z = 4). High pressure behavior was studied by Raman spectroscopy at room temperature. Under 22.5 GPa, there was no sign of a structural phase transition in the spectra, demonstrating stability of the HPHT phase up to the highest pressure.

Structural stability and electrical properties of AlB2-type MnB2 under high pressure

The structural stability and electrical properties of AlB2-type MnB2 were studied based on high pressure angle-dispersive x-ray diffraction, in situ electrical resistivity measured in a diamond anvil cell (DAC) and first-principles calculations under high pressure. The x-ray diffraction results show that the structure of AlB2-type MnB2 remains stable up to 42.6 GPa. From the equation of state of MnB2, we obtained a bulk modulus value of 169.9±3.7 GPa with a fixed pressure derivative of 4, which indicates that AlB2-type MnB2 is a hard and incompressible material. The electrical resistance undergoes a transition at about 19.3 GPa, which can be explained by a transition of manganese 3d electrons from localization to delocalization under high pressure.