Synergistic Combination of Sb(2)Si(2)Te(6) Additives for Enhanced Average ZT and Single-Leg Device Efficiency of Bi(0.4)Sb(1.6)Te(3)-based Composites.

Thermoelectric materials are highly promising for waste heat harvesting. Although thermoelectric materials research has expanded over the years, bismuth telluride-based alloys are still the best for near-room-temperature applications. In this work, a ≈38% enhancement of the average ZT (300-473 K) to 1.21 is achieved by mixing Bi(0.4)Sb(1.6)Te(3) with an emerging thermoelectric material Sb(2)Si(2)Te(6), which is significantly higher than that of most Bi(y)Sb(2-y)Te(3)-based composites. This enhancement is facilitated by the unique interface region between the Bi(0.4)Sb(1.6)Te(3) matrix and Sb(2)Si(2)Te(6)-based precipitates with an orderly atomic arrangement, which promotes the transport of charge carriers with minimal scattering, overcoming a common factor that is limiting ZT enhancement in such composites. At the same time, high-density dislocations in the same region can effectively scatter the phonons, decoupling the electron-phonon transport. This results in a ≈56% enhancement of the thermoelectric quality factor at 373 K, from 0.41 for the pristine sample to 0.64 for the composite sample. A single-leg device is fabricated with a high efficiency of 5.4% at ΔT = 164 K further demonstrating the efficacy of the Sb(2)Si(2)Te(6) compositing strategy and the importance of the precipitate-matrix interface microstructure in improving the performance of materials for relatively low-temperature applications.