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Medium Entropy-Enabled High Performance Cubic GeTe Thermoelectrics.

Shizhen Zhi1, Jibiao Li2,3, Lipeng Hu1

  • 1College of Materials Science and Engineering Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Special Functional Materials Guangdong Research Center for Interfacial Engineering of Functional Materials Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Deep Earth Sciences and Geothermal Energy Exploitation and Utilization Institute of Deep Earth Sciences and Green Energy Shenzhen University Shenzhen 518060 China.

Advanced Science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany)
|July 1, 2021
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Medium-entropy alloying in GeTe materials suppresses phase transitions, enhancing thermoelectric performance. This approach achieves high efficiency and mechanical hardness, promoting practical applications for advanced thermoelectric devices.

Keywords:
GeTeband engineeringentropy engineeringphase transitionthermoelectric

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Area of Science:

  • Materials Science
  • Solid State Physics
  • Thermodynamics

Background:

  • Configurational entropy is a key factor in functional materials, particularly for thermoelectrics.
  • In Germanium Telluride (GeTe), low-entropy variants offer high performance but suffer from phase transitions, while high-entropy versions have poor carrier mobility.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate medium-entropy alloying in GeTe to overcome the limitations of low- and high-entropy compositions.
  • To achieve a stable cubic GeTe phase with optimized carrier mobility and suppressed lattice thermal conductivity for enhanced thermoelectric properties.

Main Methods:

  • Implemented medium-entropy alloying in GeTe by co-alloying with (Mn, Pb, Sb, Cd).
  • Investigated the effects of alloying on structural phase transition, carrier mobility, lattice thermal conductivity, and band structure.
  • Evaluated thermoelectric figure of merit (zT) and Vickers hardness.

Main Results:

  • Achieved a stable cubic GeTe phase with suppressed phase transitions.
  • Attained a state-of-the-art thermoelectric figure of merit (zT) of 2.1 at 873 K and an average zT (zT_ave) of 1.3 (300–873 K).
  • Obtained a record-high Vickers hardness of 270.

Conclusions:

  • Medium-entropy alloying is an effective strategy to enhance GeTe-based thermoelectric materials.
  • The developed material demonstrates significant potential for practical thermoelectric applications due to improved efficiency and mechanical stability.
  • This work represents a breakthrough in entropy engineering for functional materials.