Thermoelectric performance of silicon with oxide nanoinclusions

Silicon nanoparticles produced via a plasma-based technique have been sintered into bulk nanostructured samples. These samples have micron-sized crystalline domains and contain well-dispersed oxide nanoinclusions. We have compared the thermoelectric performance of such structure to that of a control...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inMaterials research letters Vol. 6; no. 8; pp. 419 - 425
Main Authors Coleman, D., Lopez, T., Exarhos, S., Mecklenburg, M., Bux, S., Mangolini, L.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Taylor & Francis Group 03.08.2018
Subjects
nanoinclusions
plasma synthesis
Thermal transport
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Summary:Silicon nanoparticles produced via a plasma-based technique have been sintered into bulk nanostructured samples. These samples have micron-sized crystalline domains and contain well-dispersed oxide nanoinclusions. We have compared the thermoelectric performance of such structure to that of a control sample produced by sintering ball-milled silicon powders. The control sample has lower precipitate density and is composed of nanograins. Despite the stark difference in nanostructure, both samples have comparable thermal conductivity, and the sample with nanoinclusions has higher power factor and ZT. This result confirms that grain size engineering is not the only promising route to achieving improved thermoelectric performance.
ISSN:2166-3831
2166-3831
DOI:10.1080/21663831.2018.1477846