Enhancement of the thermoelectric performance of half-metallic full-Heusler Mn_(2)VAl alloys via antisite defect engineering and Si partial substitution

A half-metallic full-Heusler Mn_(2)VAl alloy is a potential p-type thermoelectric material that can directly generate electricity from waste heat via the Seebeck effect.For practical use,the Seebeck coefficient S of Mn_(2)VAl should be increased while maintaining a high electrical conductivity s from its half-metallic character.Herein,we achieved this objective through antisite defect engineering.Theoretically,it was predicted that the S was maximized by regulating partial density of states of majority-spin sp-electrons through the control of the fraction of antisite defect,f_(AD),between V and Al atoms in Mn_(2)VAl.Experi-mentally,a significant increase in S and a slight decrease in s were observed for an Mn_(2)VAl sample with an optimal fAD=33%,enhancing the thermoelectric power factor PF by 2.7 times from an Mn_(2)VAl sample with fAD=14%.Furthermore,we combined the antisite defect engineering with a partial substitution method.An Mn_(2)V(Al_(0.96)Si_(0.04))sample with fAD=33%exhibited the highest PF=4.5×10^(-4)W·m^(-1)·K^(-2)at 767 K among the samples.The maximum dimensionless figure-of-merit zT of the Mn_(2)V(Al_(0.96)Si_(0.04))sample with f_(AD)=33%was measured to be 3.4×10^(-2)at 767 K,which is the highest among the p-type half-metallic full-Heusler alloys.

Enhanced thermoelectric performance in MnTe due to doping and insitu nanocompositing effects by Ag2S addition

Extremely low lattice thermal conductivity is always the pursuit of thermoelectric materials research.In this work,we reported an exceptional effect of Ag2S addition in MnTe,an emerging promising midtemperature thermoelectric material,to enable the realization of minimum lattice thermal conductivity,namely-0.4 Wm^(-1) K^(-1).Such a low lattice thermal conductivity is guaranteed by the incorporation of in-situ formed Ag rich phase(Ag2Te)with ultralow lattice thermal conductivity and further scattering of phonons from the partial doping effects induced point defects and boundaries between various phases.Apart from the dramatically decreased lattice thermal conductivity,the partial doping of Ag and S simultaneously enhance the electrical conductivity,further contributing to enhanced thermoelectric performance.Meanwhile,an inverse sign of Seebeck and Hall coefficient was observed and rationalized by the influence of highly electron-conductive Ag_(2)Te phase.Thanks to the synergetic modulation of electrical and thermal transport properties by in-situ formed composite,a high ZT value of 1.1 was achieved in MnTe based thermoelectric materials,which also demonstrates the importance of compositing approaches to design state-of-the-art thermoelectric materials.