Eco-Friendly Cerium–Cobalt Counter-Doped Bi<sub>2</sub>Se<sub>3</sub> Nanoparticulate Semiconductor: Synergistic Doping Effect for Enhanced Thermoelectric Generation
Metal chalcogenides are primarily used for thermoelectric applications due to their enormous potential to convert waste heat into valuable energy. Several studies focused on single or dual aliovalent doping techniques to enhance thermoelectric properties in semiconductor materials; however, these do...
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MDPI AG
2023-10-01
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| Series: | Nanomaterials |
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| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2079-4991/13/20/2738 |
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| author | Jamal-Deen Musah Siu Wing Or Lingyan Kong Vellaisamy A. L. Roy Chi-Man Lawrence Wu |
| author_facet | Jamal-Deen Musah Siu Wing Or Lingyan Kong Vellaisamy A. L. Roy Chi-Man Lawrence Wu |
| author_sort | Jamal-Deen Musah |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Metal chalcogenides are primarily used for thermoelectric applications due to their enormous potential to convert waste heat into valuable energy. Several studies focused on single or dual aliovalent doping techniques to enhance thermoelectric properties in semiconductor materials; however, these dopants enhance one property while deteriorating others due to the interdependency of these properties or may render the host material toxic. Therefore, a strategic doping approach is vital to harness the full potential of doping to improve the efficiency of thermoelectric generation while restoring the base material eco-friendly. Here, we report a well-designed counter-doped eco-friendly nanomaterial system (~70 nm) using both isovalent (cerium) and aliovalent (cobalt) in a Bi<sub>2</sub>Se<sub>3</sub> system for enhancing energy conversion efficiency. Substituting cerium for bismuth simultaneously enhances the Seebeck coefficient and electrical conductivity via ionized impurity minimization. The boost in the average electronegativity offered by the self-doped transitional metal cobalt leads to an improvement in the degree of delocalization of the valence electrons. Hence, the new energy state around the Fermi energy serving as electron feed to the conduction band coherently improves the density of the state of conducting electrons. The resulting high power factor and low thermal conductivity contributed to the remarkable improvement in the figure of merit (zT = 0.55) at 473 K for an optimized doping concentration of 0.01 at. %. sample, and a significant nanoparticle size reduction from 400 nm to ~70 nm, making the highly performing materials in this study (<inline-formula><math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><semantics><mrow><msub><mrow><mi>B</mi><mi>i</mi></mrow><mrow><mn>2</mn><mo>−</mo><mi>x</mi></mrow></msub><msub><mrow><mi>C</mi><mi>e</mi></mrow><mrow><mi>x</mi></mrow></msub><msub><mrow><mi>C</mi><mi>o</mi></mrow><mrow><mfrac bevelled="true"><mrow><mn>2</mn><mi>x</mi></mrow><mrow><mn>3</mn></mrow></mfrac></mrow></msub><msub><mrow><mi>S</mi><mi>e</mi></mrow><mrow><mn>3</mn></mrow></msub></mrow></semantics></math></inline-formula>) an excellent thermoelectric generator. The results presented here are higher than several Bi<sub>2</sub>Se<sub>3</sub>-based materials already reported. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-10T21:00:25Z |
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| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
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| language | English |
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| publishDate | 2023-10-01 |
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| spelling | doaj.art-2db69ceb490f4ea1a9ea8c36fa31e7cf2023-11-19T17:35:25ZengMDPI AGNanomaterials2079-49912023-10-011320273810.3390/nano13202738Eco-Friendly Cerium–Cobalt Counter-Doped Bi<sub>2</sub>Se<sub>3</sub> Nanoparticulate Semiconductor: Synergistic Doping Effect for Enhanced Thermoelectric GenerationJamal-Deen Musah0Siu Wing Or1Lingyan Kong2Vellaisamy A. L. Roy3Chi-Man Lawrence Wu4Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong, ChinaDepartment of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong, ChinaDepartment of Materials Science and Engineering, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, ChinaSchool of Science and Technology, Hong Kong Metropolitan University, Hong Kong, ChinaDepartment of Materials Science and Engineering, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, ChinaMetal chalcogenides are primarily used for thermoelectric applications due to their enormous potential to convert waste heat into valuable energy. Several studies focused on single or dual aliovalent doping techniques to enhance thermoelectric properties in semiconductor materials; however, these dopants enhance one property while deteriorating others due to the interdependency of these properties or may render the host material toxic. Therefore, a strategic doping approach is vital to harness the full potential of doping to improve the efficiency of thermoelectric generation while restoring the base material eco-friendly. Here, we report a well-designed counter-doped eco-friendly nanomaterial system (~70 nm) using both isovalent (cerium) and aliovalent (cobalt) in a Bi<sub>2</sub>Se<sub>3</sub> system for enhancing energy conversion efficiency. Substituting cerium for bismuth simultaneously enhances the Seebeck coefficient and electrical conductivity via ionized impurity minimization. The boost in the average electronegativity offered by the self-doped transitional metal cobalt leads to an improvement in the degree of delocalization of the valence electrons. Hence, the new energy state around the Fermi energy serving as electron feed to the conduction band coherently improves the density of the state of conducting electrons. The resulting high power factor and low thermal conductivity contributed to the remarkable improvement in the figure of merit (zT = 0.55) at 473 K for an optimized doping concentration of 0.01 at. %. sample, and a significant nanoparticle size reduction from 400 nm to ~70 nm, making the highly performing materials in this study (<inline-formula><math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><semantics><mrow><msub><mrow><mi>B</mi><mi>i</mi></mrow><mrow><mn>2</mn><mo>−</mo><mi>x</mi></mrow></msub><msub><mrow><mi>C</mi><mi>e</mi></mrow><mrow><mi>x</mi></mrow></msub><msub><mrow><mi>C</mi><mi>o</mi></mrow><mrow><mfrac bevelled="true"><mrow><mn>2</mn><mi>x</mi></mrow><mrow><mn>3</mn></mrow></mfrac></mrow></msub><msub><mrow><mi>S</mi><mi>e</mi></mrow><mrow><mn>3</mn></mrow></msub></mrow></semantics></math></inline-formula>) an excellent thermoelectric generator. The results presented here are higher than several Bi<sub>2</sub>Se<sub>3</sub>-based materials already reported.https://www.mdpi.com/2079-4991/13/20/2738thermoelectric applicationenergy conversionnanopartitulateeco-friendly materialcounter–doping |
| spellingShingle | Jamal-Deen Musah Siu Wing Or Lingyan Kong Vellaisamy A. L. Roy Chi-Man Lawrence Wu Eco-Friendly Cerium–Cobalt Counter-Doped Bi<sub>2</sub>Se<sub>3</sub> Nanoparticulate Semiconductor: Synergistic Doping Effect for Enhanced Thermoelectric Generation Nanomaterials thermoelectric application energy conversion nanopartitulate eco-friendly material counter–doping |
| title | Eco-Friendly Cerium–Cobalt Counter-Doped Bi<sub>2</sub>Se<sub>3</sub> Nanoparticulate Semiconductor: Synergistic Doping Effect for Enhanced Thermoelectric Generation |
| title_full | Eco-Friendly Cerium–Cobalt Counter-Doped Bi<sub>2</sub>Se<sub>3</sub> Nanoparticulate Semiconductor: Synergistic Doping Effect for Enhanced Thermoelectric Generation |
| title_fullStr | Eco-Friendly Cerium–Cobalt Counter-Doped Bi<sub>2</sub>Se<sub>3</sub> Nanoparticulate Semiconductor: Synergistic Doping Effect for Enhanced Thermoelectric Generation |
| title_full_unstemmed | Eco-Friendly Cerium–Cobalt Counter-Doped Bi<sub>2</sub>Se<sub>3</sub> Nanoparticulate Semiconductor: Synergistic Doping Effect for Enhanced Thermoelectric Generation |
| title_short | Eco-Friendly Cerium–Cobalt Counter-Doped Bi<sub>2</sub>Se<sub>3</sub> Nanoparticulate Semiconductor: Synergistic Doping Effect for Enhanced Thermoelectric Generation |
| title_sort | eco friendly cerium cobalt counter doped bi sub 2 sub se sub 3 sub nanoparticulate semiconductor synergistic doping effect for enhanced thermoelectric generation |
| topic | thermoelectric application energy conversion nanopartitulate eco-friendly material counter–doping |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2079-4991/13/20/2738 |
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