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Post-Electric Current Treatment Approaching High-Performance Flexible n-Type Bi<sub>2</sub>Te<sub>3</sub> Thin Films
oleh: Dongwei Ao, Wei-Di Liu, Fan Ma, Wenke Bao, Yuexing Chen
| Format: | Article |
|---|---|
| Diterbitkan: | MDPI AG 2022-09-01 |
Deskripsi
Inorganic n-type Bi<sub>2</sub>Te<sub>3</sub> flexible thin film, as a promising near-room temperature thermoelectric material, has attracted extensive research interest and application potentials. In this work, to further improve the thermoelectric performance of flexible Bi<sub>2</sub>Te<sub>3</sub> thin films, a post-electric current treatment is employed. It is found that increasing the electric current leads to increased carrier concentration and electric conductivity from 1874 S cm<sup>−1</sup> to 2240 S cm<sup>−1</sup>. Consequently, a high power factor of ~10.70 μW cm<sup>−1</sup> K<sup>−2</sup> at room temperature can be achieved in the Bi<sub>2</sub>Te<sub>3</sub> flexible thin films treated by the electric current of 0.5 A, which is competitive among flexible n-type Bi<sub>2</sub>Te<sub>3</sub> thin films. Besides, the small change of relative resistance <10% before and after bending test demonstrates excellent bending resistance of as-prepared flexible Bi<sub>2</sub>Te<sub>3</sub> films. A flexible device composed of 4 n-type legs generates an open circuit voltage of ~7.96 mV and an output power of 24.78 nW at a temperature difference of ~35 K. Our study indicates that post-electric current treatment is an effective method in boosting the electrical performance of flexible Bi<sub>2</sub>Te<sub>3</sub> thin films.