Thermoelectric Properties of Solvothermal Grown Bismuth Telluride-Carbon Nanomaterials Composites

Current state of the art portable power source faces problems such as low-life, high production cost and weight penalty. As such, thermoelectric (TE) power generation and cooling have been considered as an alternative as low-cost, more efficient, environmentally responsible approach. One of more promising TE material of interest are alloys based on bismuth telluride (Bi₂Te₃) and thus much efforts have been made to improve TE properties by (1) reducing the materials’ dimension to nanoscale, and (2) incorporating other nanostructures such as graphene, to enhance electrical properties and thermal conductivity. This geometry offers a natural architecture for thermoelectric devices due to reduced thermal transport and enhanced electronic tunneling at the nanomaterial interfaces. Building upon this mechanism, we present thermoelectric properties of Bi₂Te₃ composited with various carbon nanostructures. Our TE materials are synthesized via solvothermal method resulting in uniformly dispersed nanoplates interfaced with 1D and 2D carbon nanostructures. Our results not only show change in thermoelectric properties of Bi₂Te₃ upon incorporation of carbon nanostructures, but provide characterization of Bi2Te3-nanomaterial interface for development of next-gen, low power, portable power source.