Thermoelectric Properties of Reduced Graphene Oxide/Bi2Te3 Nanocomposites

• Published in: Energies (Basel) Vol. 12; no. 12; p. 2430
• Main Authors: Du, Yong, Li, Jia, Xu, Jiayue, Eklund, Per
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Basel MDPI AG 2019
• Subjects: Alloys; Bi2Te3; Bismuth tellurides; Carbon; composite; Composite materials; Deionization; Fabrication; Fracture surfaces; Generators; Graphene; Heat conductivity; Hot pressing; Microscopy; Nanocomposites; Nitrates; Plasma sintering; Potassium; Process controls; reduced graphene oxide; Spectrometry; Thermal conductivity; thermoelectric; Vacuum; United States > US; Bi2Te3; reduced graphene oxide; thermoelectric; composite
• ISSN: 1996-1073; 1996-1073
• DOI: 10.3390/en12122430

Reduced graphene oxide (rGO)/Bi2Te3 nanocomposite powders with different contents of rGO have been synthesized by a one-step in-situ reductive method. Then, rGO/Bi2Te3 nanocomposite bulk materials were fabricated by a hot-pressing process. The effect of rGO contents on the composition, microstructure, TE properties, and carrier transportation of the nanocomposite bulk materials has been investigated. All the composite bulk materials show negative Seebeck coefficient, indicating n-type conduction. The electrical conductivity for all the rGO/Bi2Te3 nanocomposite bulk materials decreased with increasing measurement temperature from 25 °C to 300 °C, while the absolute value of Seebeck coefficient first increased and then decreased. As a result, the power factor of the bulk materials first increased and then decreased, and a power factor of 1340 μWm−1K−2 was achieved for the nanocomposite bulk materials with 0.25 wt% rGO at 150 °C.