Bi2(Te,Se)3 alloys are conventional commercial thermoelectric materials for solid-state refrigeration around room temperature.In recent years,much attention has been paid to various advanced thermoelectric composite materials due to the unique thermoelectric properties.In this work,Bi2Se3/TiO2 composites were prepared by hot pressing the plate-like Bi2Se3 powders coated in situ with hydrolyzed hytetabutyl-n-butyl titanate(TNBT),and therefore numerous TiO2 in micrometer size could be formed on the interface of Bi2Se3 grains.The carrier concentration in Bi2Se3 matrix is optimized subject to the addition of n-type semiconductor TiO2,contributing to a significant improved power factor.In the meantime,the lattice thermal conductivity is also suppressed due to the enhanced phonon scattering at Bi2Se3/TiO2 interface and amorphous TiO2 particles.As a consequence,a peak figure of merit(zT)of 0.41 is obtained at 525 K in Bi2Se3/15 mol%TiO2 composites,nearly 50%augment over the pristine Bi2Se3 binary compound.
展开▼