Colloidal synthetic environmental design towards high-density twin boundaries and boosted thermoelectric performance in Cu5FeS4 icosahedrons
Résumé
High-density twin boundaries can significantly influence materials’ functional and mechanical properties. In thermoelectrics, twin engineering is able to manipulate the carrier and phonon transport in semiconductors, leading to improved dimensionless figure of merit (zT). However, obtaining twin boundaries with tunable density and uniform distribution in thermoelectric semiconductors is rather challenging. Here, by precisely controlling the temperature of sulfur precursor, the particle size of synthesized Cu5FeS4 icosahedrons can be decreased to produce higher-density twin boundaries. Accordingly, the optimized average distance between two adjacent twin boundaries matches the mean free path of phonons but is much larger than that of carriers, thereby efficiently lowering the lattice thermal conductivity without affecting the carrier mobility significantly. In combination with the enhanced power factor caused by increased carrier concentration, a maximal zT of 0.95 is achieved at 773 K in a p-type Cu5FeS4 derivative material, which is one of the highest values among those in Earth-abundant, environmentally-friendly thermoelectric sulfides. This work uncovers the crucial role of highdensity twin boundaries in decoupling the carrier and phonon transport for improved thermoelectric performance in Cu5FeS4-based materials.