| Citation: |
Bingchao Qin, Li-Dong Zhao. Carriers: the Less, the Faster. Materials Lab 2022, 1, 220004. doi: 10.54227/mlab.20220004
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Carriers: the Less, the Faster
Published as part of the Virtual Special Issue “Beihang University at 70”
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Abstract
Thermoelectric (TE) community has long believed that high TE performance requires an optimal carrier concentration traditionally locating in the range of ~1019 to ~1021 cm−3. Herein, we propose that potential high TE performance might also be achieved at lower carrier concentrations of ~1018 to ~1019 cm−3. At this range, extremely large Seebeck coefficient with low thermal conductivity can be effortlessly obtained. The next step to achieve high ZT values is boosting the carrier mobility. We then propose two aspects for carrier mobility optimization, including the strategies of preparing single crystals, improving crystal symmetry, texturing, controlling microscopic defects, sharpening bands, aligning bands, and modulation doping. We also suggest it rather essential to utilize multiple of the strategies to achieve the significant optimization of carrier mobility. Our proposal will be the important guidance for realizing promising performance in new TE materials as well as revisiting the TE performance for traditional systems.
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Keywords:
- Thermoelectric /
- Carrier concentration /
- Carrier mobility /
- Defects engineering
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Author Biographies
Dr. Bingchao Qin received his B.E. degree in the School of Materials Science and Engineering from Beihang University, China, in 2017. He is now a Ph.D. candidate at Beihang University under the supervision of Prof. Li-Dong Zhao. His research focuses on the transport properties of SnSe crystalline thermoelectrics and other IV–VI compounds with intrinsically low lattice thermal conductivity. 
Dr. Li-Dong Zhao is a full professor of the School of Materials Science and Engineering at Beihang University, China. He received his Ph.D. degree from the University of Science and Technology Beijing, China in 2009. He was a postdoctoral research associate at the Université Paris-Sud and Northwestern University from 2009 to 2014. His research interests include electrical and thermal transport behaviors in the compounds with layered structures. He has authored over 250 peer-reviewed publications in international journals with an h-index of 75. Professor Zhao has been identified as Highly Cited Researchers by Clarivate (2019-2022). Group website: http://shi.buaa.edu.cn/zhaolidong/zh_CN/index.htm . -
References
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Bingchao Qin, Li-Dong Zhao. Carriers: the Less, the Faster. Materials Lab 2022, 1, 220004. doi: 10.54227/mlab.20220004
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Figure 1.
Thermoelectric parameters as a function of carrier concentration predicted by the single band model. The dotted ZT curve indicates that potential high thermoelectric performance can be expected in the range with lower carrier concentrations through optimizing the carrier mobility.
