Article Title

Thermoelectric properties of p-type PbSe nanowires

Authors

Wenjie Liang, Department of Chemistry, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA Current Address: Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100080, China
Oded Rabin, Department of Chemistry, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA Current Address: Department of Materials Science and Engineering and the Institute for Research in Electronics and Applied Physics, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA
Allon I. Hochbaum, Department of Chemistry, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA
Melissa Fardy, Department of Chemistry, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA
Minjuan Zhang, Materials Research Department, Toyota Technical Center, Toyota Motor Engineering & Manufacturing North America (TEMA) Inc., 1555 Woodridge Ave., Ann Arbor, MI 48105, USA
Peidong Yang, Department of Chemistry, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA

Keywords

Nanowire, thermoelectrics, thermopower, thermal conductivity, lead chalcogenide

Abstract

The thermoelectric properties of individual solution-phase synthesized p-type PbSe nanowires have been examined. The nanowires showed near degenerately doped charge carrier concentrations. Compared to the bulk, the PbSe nanowires exhibited a similar Seebeck coefficient and a significant reduction in thermal conductivity in the temperature range 20 K to 300 K. Thermal annealing of the PbSe nanowires allowed their thermoelectric properties to be controllably tuned by increasing their carrier concentration or hole mobility. After optimal annealing, single PbSe nanowires exhibited a thermoelectric fi gure of merit (ZT) of 0.12 at room temperature.

Graphical Abstract

DOI

https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-009-9039-2

Publisher

Tsinghua University Press

Recommended Citation

Wenjie Liang,Oded Rabin,Allon I. Hochbaum,Melissa Fardy,Minjuan Zhang,Peidong Yang, Thermoelectric properties of p-type PbSe nanowires. NanoRes.2009, 2: 394-3999