In situ precipitation of Te nanoparticles in p-type BiSbTe and the effect on thermoelectric performance

Through zone melting method, a certain amount of Te nano precipitations were in situ generated in the p-type BiSbTe matrix because of the addition of graphene. Both the microstructure and thermoelectric performance were investigated. Increased carrier concentration was obtained to improve the electrical performance, and the lattice thermal conductivity was simultaneously lowered about 25% by Te nano precipitations as phonon scattering centers. Consequently, an optimization of the thermoelectric figure-of-merit ZT between 375 and 550 K was achieved.