Improving electrical and thermal properties synchronously via introducing CsPbBr3 QDs into higher manganese silicides

Abstract Higher manganese silicide (HMS) is a P-type medium temperature thermoelectric (TE) material, which has attracted widespread attention over the past few decades due to its remarkable mechanical properties, excellent chemical and thermal stability, as well as the non-toxicity, abundance and competitive price. The peak power factor (PF) of HMS is as high as ∼1.50 × 10−3 W m−1 K−2 because of its intrinsic high electrical conductivity and Seebeck coefficient. However, the thermal conductivity of HMS is also high, resulting in relatively low zT values. Introducing nano-dispersion in the matrix is one of the most effective methods to enhance the TE properties via reducing the lattice thermal conductivity significantly without drastic changes on the other parameters. In this study, CsPbBr3 QDs with uniform size were synthesized and introduced into HMS bulks. The PF (at 823 K) was enhanced to 1.71 × 10−3 W m−1 K−2, which is improved 14.0% approximately compared with that of pure HMS owing to the combined effect of element doping and energy filtering. The lattice thermal conductivity (at 823 K) decreased from 2.56 W m−1 K−1 to 1.99 W m−1 K−1 synchronously (∼22.0%) due to the intensive phonon scattering caused by Cs doping, and the embedding of Pb riched CsPbBr3 QDs and Pb QDs. A maximum zT value of 0.57 (823 K) is achieved in CsPbBr3 QDs/HMS composites, which is 36.0% higher than that of pure HMS. Predictably, for other TE materials, it is also feasible to improve the TE properties via introducing metastable quantum dots.