Enhancement Thermoelectric Properties of Cux-doped Nanostructure Bi-Sb-Te Thermoelectric Materials by Spark Plasma Sintering

Abstract Nanostructure Cu x -doped Bi 0.5 Sb 1.5-x Te 3 thermoelectric materials was successfully prepared by Mechanical alloys and spark plasma sintering. In the reasearch, the crystallinity, particle size, and chemical composition were characterized by XRD, EDS, respectively. Thermoelectric properties with a maximum ZT value up to 1.17 has been obtained at 407 K in prepared Cu 0.04 -doped Bi 0.5 Sb 1.496 Te 3 sample. The achieved higher ZT value is attributed that Cu as doping at the Sb sites introduced additional holes to enhance carrier mobility and Cu dopants interrupted the periodicity of lattice vibration to decrease lattice thermal conductivity. It is suggested that the as-prepared nanostructure Cu x -doped Bi 0.5 Sb 1.5-x Te 3 thermoelectric materials has high potential for thermoelectric energy conversion application.