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High electrical conductivity antimony selenide nanocrystals and assemblies.
Rutvik J Mehta1, C Karthik, Wei Jiang
1Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Aerospace and Nuclear Engineering Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, 110 Eighth Street, Troy, New York 12180, United States.
Nano Letters
|October 8, 2010
Summary
Researchers developed a fast, scalable microwave synthesis for sulfurized antimony selenide nanocrystals. These nanomaterials show significantly enhanced electrical conductivity, paving the way for improved thermoelectric devices.
Area of Science:
- Materials Science
- Nanotechnology
- Thermoelectrics
Background:
- Antimony selenide is a thermoelectric material with a high Seebeck coefficient.
- Its thermoelectric performance is hindered by low electrical conductivity.
Purpose of the Study:
- To develop a scalable synthesis for antimony selenide nanocrystals.
- To enhance the electrical conductivity of antimony selenide for thermoelectric applications.
Main Methods:
- Rapid and scalable microwave synthesis of one-dimensional nanocrystals.
- Synthesis of sulfurized antimony selenide using a surfactant.
Main Results:
- Achieved gram-a-minute synthesis of sulfurized antimony selenide nanocrystals.
- Nanocrystals exhibited 10^4-10^10 times higher electrical conductivity than bulk or thin films.
- Nanowires transformed into nanotubes with increasing diameter due to sulfur rejection.
- Individual nanostructures showed low charge carrier transport activation energy (<60 meV) from surface sulfur donor states.
Conclusions:
- The developed microwave synthesis is effective for producing high-conductivity antimony selenide nanocrystals.
- These nanocrystals are promising building blocks for nanostructured thermoelectric materials.
- The findings enable the realization of advanced thermoelectric devices.
