Nanoarchitectonics of p-type BiSbTe with improved figure of merit via introducing PbTe nanoparticles

Bi0.4Sb1.6Te3 (BST) is known to be a unique p-type commercial thermoelectric (TE) alloy used at room temperatures, but its figure of merit (ZT) is relatively low for wide industrial applications. To improve its ZT value is vitally important. Here, we show that the incorporation of 0.5 wt% PbTe nanoparticles into BST concurrently causes a large enhancement of power factor (PF) and a significant reduction of lattice thermal conductivity κL. The increase in PF mainly benefits from the optimization of carrier concentration, maintenance of high carrier mobility and constant rise in Seebeck coefficient. The decrease in κL can be attributed to the enhanced phonon scattering by the dispersed PbTe nanoparticles and the interfaces between PbTe and the BST matrix by using the Callaway model. Specifically, an ultralow κL of 0.26 W m−1 K−1 at 429 K is achieved for the composites incorporating 0.5 wt% PbTe nanoinclusions. Consequently, an excellent ZT = 1.6 at 482 K and a high average ZTave = 1.38 at 300–500 K are achieved, indicating that incorporation of PbTe in BST is an effective approach to improve its thermoelectric performance.