Surface Modification of Bismuth by ALD of Antimony Oxide for Suppressing Lattice Thermal Conductivity

Shiyang He,  Jun Yang, Amin Bahrami, Xiang Zhang,  Ran He, Martin Hantusch, Sebastian Lehmann, and Kornelius Nielsch

Surface modification may significantly improve the performance of thermoelectric materials by suppressing thermal conductivity. Using the powder atomic layer deposition method, the newly developed Sb₂O₅ thin films produced from SbCl₅ and H₂O₂ were formed on the surfaces of Bi powders. Because of the high thermal resistance generated by Sb₂O₅ layers on Bi particles, a substantial decrease in κ_tot from 7.8 to 5.7 W m^–1 K^–1 was obtained with just 5 cycles of Sb₂O₅ layer deposition and a 16% reduction in κ_lat. Because of the strong phonon scattering, the maximum zT values increased by around 12% and were relocated to 423 K.

Link zum Paper: https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acsaem.2c00681