Facile General Route toward Tunable Magnéli Nanostructures and Their Use As Thermoelectric Metal Oxide/Carbon Nanocomposites

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• 作者：David Portehault ; Vasana Maneeratana ; Christophe Candolfi ; Niels Oeschler ; Igor Veremchuk ; Yuri Grin ; Clément Sanchez ; Markus Antonietti
• 刊名：ACS Nano
• 出版年：2011
• 出版时间：November 22, 2011
• 年：2011
• 卷：5
• 期：11
• 页码：9052-9061
• 全文大小：1143K
• 年卷期：0
• ISSN：1936-086X

文摘

Engineering nanoscale interfaces is a requisite for harnessing electrical and thermal transports within nanostructured materials, especially those destined for thermoelectric applications requiring an unusual combination of low thermal conductivity and electrical resistivity. Nanocomposites open up possibilities in this area, but are still bound to a very narrow range of materials. Here, we report a new approach combining the sol–gel process toward hybrid materials with spark plasma sintering (SPS) to yield functional nanocomposites based on substoichiometric titanium oxides Ti_nO_2n–1, so-called Magnéli phases. The potential of this new approach is demonstrated by three results. First, multiple Ti_nO_2n–1 compounds (n = 3, 4, 5, 6, 8) are obtained for the first time as sole nano-Magnéli crystalline phases with controlled specific surface areas from 55 to 300 m²·g^–1, classified as potential thermoelectric n-type metal oxides and paving the way toward advanced systems for energy-harvesting devices and optoelectronics. Second, this work combines the use of sol–gel and SPS processes to yield percolated nanocomposites based on metal oxide nanoparticles embedded in a carbon matrix with low electrical resistivity (2 × 10^–4 Ω·m for a Ti₄O₇ compound) and reduced thermal conductivity (1 W·m^–1·K^–1) with respect to bulk phases. Finally, the discovered materials are reliable with thermoelectric figures of merit (ZT = 0.08) relatively high for n-type Ti–O-based systems and metal oxides. Thereby this study represents a proof of concept for the development of promising, cheaper, and more efficient thermoelectric conversion devices.