Related Experiment Video
Updated: Sep 30, 2025

Author Spotlight: Advancements in High-Performance Thermoelectric Thin Films Through Radio Frequency Magnetron Sputtering
Published on: May 17, 2024
Structural Modularization of Cu2 Te Leading to High Thermoelectric Performance near the Mott-Ioffe-Regel Limit
Kunpeng Zhao1,2, Chenxi Zhu3, Min Zhu4
1State Key Laboratory of Metal Matrix Composites, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, 200240, China.
Abstract:
To date, thermoelectric materials research stays focused on optimizing the material's band edge details and disfavors low mobility. Here, the paradigm is shifted from the band edge to the mobility edge, exploring high thermoelectricity near the border of band conduction and hopping. Through coalloying iodine and sulfur, the plain crystal structure is modularized of liquid-like thermoelectric material Cu2 Te with mosaic nanograins and the highly size mismatched S/Te sublattice that chemically quenches the Cu sublattice and drives the electronic states from itinerant to localized. A state-of-the-art figure of merit of 1.4 is obtained at 850 K for Cu2 (S0.4 I0.1 Te0.5 ); and remarkably, it is achieved near the Mott-Ioffe-Regel limit unlike mainstream thermoelectric materials that are band conductors. Broadly, pairing structural modularization with the high performance near the Mott-Ioffe-Regel limit paves an important new path towards the rational design of high-performance thermoelectric materials.
More Related Videos
04:09Demonstrating the Simplicity and In Situ Temperature Monitoring of the Mechanochemical Synthesis of Metal Chalcogenides Suitable for Thermoelectrics
Published on: August 30, 2024
09:23Author Spotlight: Advancing Energy Solutions Using Nanocomposites as Processed Thermoelectric Materials
Published on: May 17, 2024
Related Concept Videos
Theory of Metallic Conduction
In this theory, Newton's second law of motion is used to determine the acceleration of an electron in the presence of an applied electric field. Then, its velocity is expressed via this acceleration.
An electron moves through the crystal, containing positive ions,...
Thermal Sigmatropic Reactions: Overview
Sigmatropic shifts are classified based on an order term [i, j ], where i and j indicate the number of atoms across which each end of the σ bond migrates. Below are examples of a [3,3] sigmatropic shift in...
Thermal and Photochemical Electrocyclic Reactions: Overview
Mechanisms of Heat Transfer II
Mechanism of heat transfer
Thermal Electrocyclic Reactions: Stereochemistry
Selection Rules: Thermal Activation
Conjugated systems containing an even number of π-electron pairs undergo a conrotatory ring closure. For example, thermal electrocyclization of (2E,4E)-2,4-hexadiene, a conjugated diene containing two π-electron pairs, gives trans-3,4-dimethylcyclobutene.