Synergistically enhanced thermoelectric and mechanical performance of Bi2Te3 via industrial scalable hot extrusion method for cooling and power generation applications

To meet the fast-expanding needs of thermoelectric cooling for high heat flux systems, high-performance thermoelectric devices must be constructed with materials possessing both high thermoelectric properties and mechanical strength. However, the synergistic improvement of thermoelectric and mechanical properties is challenging because of the anisotropic thermal and electrical transports in the layered Van der Waals structure of Bi2Te3, particularly for n-type Bi2(TexSe1-x)3 material. The hot extrusion (HE) technique was believed as the most efficient approach to decoupling the thermoelectric and mechanical properties of Bi2Te3. However, the mechanism and performance of Bi2Te3 materials prepared by the HE method have been elusive. In this work, we developed an industrial-scalable HE technique to manipulate the texture ordering in Bi2Te3 material, achieving simultaneous improvement of thermoelectric and mechanical properties. Compared to SPS samples, our HE samples not only show 19% enhancement of the peak ZT, but also exhibit record high compressive strength of 205 MPa and flexural strength of 79 MPa, respectively. Furthermore, 7-pairs thermoelectric modules were fabricated to verify the cooling and power generation performance. A maximum temperature difference of 72 K (Th = 300 K) compared to 68 K for commercial devices and a maximum conversion efficiency of 5% at Th ≤ 500 K were realized.