Tuning the thermal conductivity of strontium titanate through annealing treatments

• Published in: 中国物理B：英文版 no. 1; pp. 361 - 366
• Main Author: 张喨 李宁 王惠琼 张宇锋 任飞 廖霞霞 李亚平 王小丹 黄政 戴扬 鄢浩 郑金成
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: 2017
• ISSN: 1674-1056; 2058-3834

Strontium titanate（SrTiO3） is a promising n-type material for thermoelectric applications. However, its relatively high thermal conductivity limits its performance in efficiently converting heat into electrical power through thermoelectric effect.This work shows that the thermal conductivity of SrTiO3 can be effectively reduced by annealing treatments, through an integrated study of laser flash measurement, scanning electron microscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, x-ray absorption fine structure, and first-principles calculations. A phonon scattering model is proposed to explain the reduction of thermal conductivity after annealing. This work suggests a promising means to characterize and optimize the material for thermoelectric applications.