Solvothermal Synthesis of Tetrahedrite: Speeding Up the Process of Thermoelectric Material Generation

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• 作者：Derak J. James ; Xu Lu ; Donald T. Morelli ; Stephanie L. Brock
• 刊名：ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces
• 出版年：2015
• 出版时间：October 28, 2015
• 年：2015
• 卷：7
• 期：42
• 页码：23623-23632
• 全文大小：547K
• ISSN：1944-8252

文摘

Derivatives of synthetic tetrahedrite, Cu₁₂Sb₄S₁₃, are receiving increasing attention in the thermoelectric community due to their exploitation of plentiful, relatively nontoxic elements, combined with a thermoelectric performance that rivals that of PbTe-based compounds. However, traditional synthetic methods require weeks of annealing at high temperatures (450鈥?00 掳C) and periodic regrinding of the samples. Here we report a solvothermal method to produce tetrahedrite that requires only 1 day of heating at a relatively low temperature (155 掳C). This allows preparation of multiple samples at once and is potentially scalable. The solvothermal material described herein demonstrates a dimensionless figure of merit (ZT) vs temperature curve comparable to that of solid-state tetrahedrite, achieving the same ZT of 0.63 at 鈭?20 K. As with the materials from solid-state synthesis, products from this rapid solvothermal synthesis can be improved by mixing in a 1:1 molar ratio with the Zn-containing natural mineral, tennantite, to achieve 0.9 mol equiv of Zn. This leads to a 36% increase in ZT at 鈭?20 K for solvothermal tetrahedrite, to 0.85.