Preparation and thermoelectric properties of Graphene/SnTe-based thermoelectric material

Abstract

The global consumption of non-renewable energy is increasing with the increase of people’s demand. Thermoelectric material is a new kind of functional material, which can realize the mutual transformation of electric energy and thermal energy. It plays an important role in easing the energy crisis. The main object of this project is the Graphene/SnTe-based thermoelectric material, which is less toxic and more environmentally friendly than the traditional thermoelectric material PbTe. SnTe has similar structure to PbTe, and it has great potential in the thermoelectric properties. This research presented a new method for improving the thermoelectric performance of SnTe by producing a Graphene/SnTe nanocomposite. Firstly, the hydrothermal synthesis method (HS) was used to prepare Graphene/SnTe powder, which was then sintered by the spark plasma sintering (SPS) method to be the bulk material. The maximum ZT value of the sample was 0.72 at 773K. Secondly, the pure SnTe and Graphene/SnTe bulk materials were prepared by mechanical alloy method (MA) and spark plasma sintering (SPS). By thermoelectric performance tests, the maximum ZT of pure SnTe was 0.51 at 773 K. Because of the doped graphene, SnTe bulk material reduces the thermal conductivity and greatly improved the ZT values, get a biggest ZT value of 0.73 at 773 K.

Date of Award	1 Aug 2022
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	The University of Manchester
Supervisor	Hugh Gong (Supervisor) & Jiashen Li (Supervisor)