Facile preparation of SnSe derivatives in nanostructured polycrystalline form by arc-melting synthesis

Abstract We report on the synthesis and thermoelectric properties of SnSe polycrystalline alloys doped with Ge, In, Sb and Pb, with various stoichiometries, prepared directly by arc-melting. All of them show a microstructure consisting of a stacking of sheets of nanometric thickness, resulting from the quenching process of the molten products, which particularly affects the crystallization process. This morphology strongly determines the thermoelectric properties. Each different alloy has been structurally characterized by XRD and NPD (neutrons permit to analyse the bulk and avoid preferred orientation problems) and the three transport parameters involved in the ZT figure of merit have been studied in as-grown pellets of the bulk materials.