Improved thermoelectric performance of BiCuSeO by Ag substitution at Cu site

Authors

Muhammad Umer Farooq, University of Science and Technology Beijing, Xinjiang Inspection Institute of Special Equipment
Sajid Butt, Institute of Space Technology, Tsinghua University
Kewei Gao, University of Science and Technology Beijing
Xiao Lu Pang, University of Science and Technology Beijing
Xigui Sun, University of Science and Technology Beijing
- Asfandiyar, Tsinghua University
Fida Mohmed, Tsinghua University
Abida Ahmad, Tsinghua University
Asif Mahmood, Peking University
Nasir Mahmood, University of Wollongong, University of Electronic Science and Technology of ChinaFollow

RIS ID

127862

Publication Details

Farooq, M. U., Butt, S., Gao, K., Pang, X. L., Sun, X., Asfandiyar, , Mohmed, F., Ahmad, A., Mahmood, A. & Mahmood, N. (2017). Improved thermoelectric performance of BiCuSeO by Ag substitution at Cu site. Journal Of Alloys And Compounds, 691 572-577.

Abstract

BiCuSeO oxyselenide-based thermoelectric materials are attracting much attention due to their ultra-low intrinsic thermal conductivity (ĸ) and moderate Seebeck coefficient (S). However, the low conversion efficiency limits their application in energy conversion systems. This paper investigated the effect of monovalent Ag-doping in BiCuSeO at Cu site in the presence of polyvinyl alcohol (PVA). The results show that Ag is effectively doped at Cu site. The heavy atom substitution in BiCu1−xAgxSeO at Cu site can enhance S and reduce its total thermal conductivity (k) by phonon scattering. Further, the incorporation of heavy atom (Ag) with different ionic radii results in the improved ZT of 0.64 for BiCu1−xAgxSeO, which is 16% more than that for pure BiCuSeO (ZT = 0.55) at 923 K. It is believed that the Cu site should be an efficient dopant site to improve the efficiency of oxyselenide-based thermoelectric materials.