Hwang, Junphil Lee, Minju Yu, Byung-Kyu Han, Mi-Kyung Kim, Woochul Kim, Jungwon Al Rahal Al Orabi, Rabih Wang, Hongchao Acharya, Somnath Kim, Jiyong Jin, Yingshi Park, Hwanjoo Kim, Sujin Yang, So-Hyeon Kim, Sung-Jin 2024-01-19T14:30:18Z 2024-01-19T14:30:18Z 2021-10-21 2021-07 2050-7488 https://pubs.kist.re.kr/handle/201004/116782 A thermoelectric coated grain nanocomposite CuInTe2/SnTe with eco-friendly elements was synthesized. The nanocomposite contains a coating layer of CuInTe2 and SnO2 at the grain boundaries of the SnTe matrix. The coating layer was synthesized using the cation exchange process considering the hard soft acid base (HSAB) concept, the solubility product, and crystal structure. The CuInTe2 coating layer blocks the low energy carriers of the composite resulting in 40% enhancement of the Seebeck coefficient due to energy filtering. The coherent phonon scattering by the coating layer of CuInTe2 effectively reduces the lattice thermal conductivity to almost the minimum theoretical limit. The thermoelectric figure of merit (zT) for the CuInTe2/SnTe nanocomposite was as high as 1.68 at 823 K, which is significantly higher than that of bulk SnTe in the mid-temperature range. The average zT from 373 K to 823 K for the nanocomposite was 0.76, which is promising for utilization in industrial application. English Royal Society of Chemistry Enhancement of thermoelectric performance in a non-toxic CuInTe2/SnTe coated grain nanocomposite Article 10.1039/d1ta02893f 1 Journal of Materials Chemistry A, v.9, no.26, pp.14851 - 14858 Journal of Materials Chemistry A 9 26 14851 14858 N scie scopus 000664262400001 2-s2.0-85109217117 Chemistry, Physical Energy & Fuels Materials Science, Multidisciplinary Chemistry Energy & Fuels Materials Science Article THERMAL-CONDUCTIVITY TIN TELLURIDE SNTE SKUTTERUDITE NANOCRYSTALS SOLUBILITY EFFICIENCY INDIUM