High Thermoelectric Performance in n-Type Polycrystalline SnSe via Dual Incorporation of Cl and PbSe and Dense Nanostructures

Despite extensive studies on emerging thermoelectric material SnSe, its n-type form is largely underdeveloped mainly due to the difficulty in stabilizing the carrier concentration at the optimal level. Here, we dually introduce Cl and PbSe to induce n-type conduction in intrinsic p-type SnSe. PbSe alloying enhances the power factor and suppresses lattice thermal conductivity at the same time, giving a highest thermoelectric figure of merit ZT of 1.2 at 823 K for n-type polycrystalline SnSe materials. The best composition is Sn 0.90 Pb 0.15 Se 0.95 Cl 0.05 . Samples prepared by the solid-state reaction show a high maximum ZT ( ZT max ) ∼1.1 and ∼0.8 parallel and perpendicular to the press direction of spark plasma sintering, respectively. Remarkably, post-ball milling and annealing processes considerably reduce structural anisotropy, thereby leading to a ZT max ∼1.2 along both the directi…