Thermoelectric Tin Selenide: The Beauty of Simplicity

2014/07/14 by Hao Zhang, Dmitri V. Talapin · 1 citation
Materials Science · Engineering · #Advanced Thermoelectric Materials and Devices #Chalcogenide Semiconductor Thin Films #Heusler alloys: electronic and magnetic properties #Thermoelectric effect #Thermoelectric materials #Anharmonicity #Materials science #Figure of merit #Thermoelectric generator #Selenide #Engineering physics #Simplicity #Thermal conductivity #Optoelectronics #Lattice vibration #Nanotechnology #Condensed matter physics #Physics #Composite material #Phonon #Metallurgy #Thermodynamics #Quantum mechanics

paper · doi:10.1002/anie.201405683

openalex publication_date 2014/07/14 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/29

Abstract

A thermoelectric figure of merit that is unprecedentedly high has been observed in SnSe crystals. This finding suggests that bulk materials with a layered structure and highly anharmonic lattice vibrations can feature an intrinsically low thermal conductivity and high thermoelectric efficiency. Together with other recent findings in this field, it urges us to revisit basic design principles for thermoelectric materials.

Citations

• Ultralow thermal conductivity and high thermoelectric figure of merit in SnSe crystals
• Enhancement of Thermoelectric Efficiency in PbTe by Distortion of the Electronic Density of States
• High-performance bulk thermoelectrics with all-scale hierarchical architectures
• Convergence of electronic bands for high performance bulk thermoelectrics
• Complex thermoelectric materials

Cited by

• Thermoelectric materials [wikipedia]