Microwave Irradiation to Produce High Performance Thermoelectric Material Based on Al Doped ZnO Nanostructures
Microwave irradiation is found to be effective to provide highly crystalline nanostructured materials. In this work, this technique has been used to produce highly improved thermoelectric (TE) material based on aluminum (Al) doped zinc oxide (ZnO) nanostructures (NSs). The effect of Al dopant at the...
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MDPI AG
2020-07-01
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| Series: | Crystals |
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| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4352/10/7/610 |
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| author | Neazar Baghdadi Numan Salah Ahmed Alshahrie Kunihito Koumoto |
| author_facet | Neazar Baghdadi Numan Salah Ahmed Alshahrie Kunihito Koumoto |
| author_sort | Neazar Baghdadi |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Microwave irradiation is found to be effective to provide highly crystalline nanostructured materials. In this work, this technique has been used to produce highly improved thermoelectric (TE) material based on aluminum (Al) doped zinc oxide (ZnO) nanostructures (NSs). The effect of Al dopant at the concentration range 0.5–3 mol % on the structural and TE properties has been investigated in more details. The optimum concentration of Al for better TE performance is found to be 2 mol %, which could significantly increase the electrical conductivity and reduce the thermal conductivity of ZnO NSs and thus enhance the TE performance. This concentration showed almost metallic conductivity behavior for ZnO NSs at low temperatures, e.g., below 500 K. The electrical conductivity reached 400 S/m at room temperature, which is around 200 times greater than the value recorded for the pure ZnO NSs. Remarkably, the measured room temperature thermal conductivity of the microwave synthesized ZnO NSs was very low, which is around 4 W/m·K. This value was further reduced to 0.5 W/m·K by increasing the Al doping to 3 mol %. The figure of merit recorded 0.028 at 675 K, which is 15 times higher than that of the pure ZnO NSs. The output power of a single leg module made of 2 mol % Al doped ZnO NSs was 3.7 µW at 485 K, which is higher by 8 times than that of the pure sample. These results demonstrated the advantage of the microwave irradiation rout as a superior synthetic technique for producing and doping promising TE nanomaterials like ZnO NSs. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-10T18:30:42Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-896256a0d8f043cbbc72002182d5b525 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2073-4352 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-10T18:30:42Z |
| publishDate | 2020-07-01 |
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| spelling | doaj.art-896256a0d8f043cbbc72002182d5b5252023-11-20T06:40:12ZengMDPI AGCrystals2073-43522020-07-0110761010.3390/cryst10070610Microwave Irradiation to Produce High Performance Thermoelectric Material Based on Al Doped ZnO NanostructuresNeazar Baghdadi0Numan Salah1Ahmed Alshahrie2Kunihito Koumoto3Center of Nanotechnology, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah 21589, Saudi ArabiaCenter of Nanotechnology, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah 21589, Saudi ArabiaCenter of Nanotechnology, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah 21589, Saudi ArabiaCenter of Nanotechnology, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah 21589, Saudi ArabiaMicrowave irradiation is found to be effective to provide highly crystalline nanostructured materials. In this work, this technique has been used to produce highly improved thermoelectric (TE) material based on aluminum (Al) doped zinc oxide (ZnO) nanostructures (NSs). The effect of Al dopant at the concentration range 0.5–3 mol % on the structural and TE properties has been investigated in more details. The optimum concentration of Al for better TE performance is found to be 2 mol %, which could significantly increase the electrical conductivity and reduce the thermal conductivity of ZnO NSs and thus enhance the TE performance. This concentration showed almost metallic conductivity behavior for ZnO NSs at low temperatures, e.g., below 500 K. The electrical conductivity reached 400 S/m at room temperature, which is around 200 times greater than the value recorded for the pure ZnO NSs. Remarkably, the measured room temperature thermal conductivity of the microwave synthesized ZnO NSs was very low, which is around 4 W/m·K. This value was further reduced to 0.5 W/m·K by increasing the Al doping to 3 mol %. The figure of merit recorded 0.028 at 675 K, which is 15 times higher than that of the pure ZnO NSs. The output power of a single leg module made of 2 mol % Al doped ZnO NSs was 3.7 µW at 485 K, which is higher by 8 times than that of the pure sample. These results demonstrated the advantage of the microwave irradiation rout as a superior synthetic technique for producing and doping promising TE nanomaterials like ZnO NSs.https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4352/10/7/610zinc oxide nanostructuresmicrowave irradiationthermoelectric propertiesAl dopantTE generator module |
| spellingShingle | Neazar Baghdadi Numan Salah Ahmed Alshahrie Kunihito Koumoto Microwave Irradiation to Produce High Performance Thermoelectric Material Based on Al Doped ZnO Nanostructures Crystals zinc oxide nanostructures microwave irradiation thermoelectric properties Al dopant TE generator module |
| title | Microwave Irradiation to Produce High Performance Thermoelectric Material Based on Al Doped ZnO Nanostructures |
| title_full | Microwave Irradiation to Produce High Performance Thermoelectric Material Based on Al Doped ZnO Nanostructures |
| title_fullStr | Microwave Irradiation to Produce High Performance Thermoelectric Material Based on Al Doped ZnO Nanostructures |
| title_full_unstemmed | Microwave Irradiation to Produce High Performance Thermoelectric Material Based on Al Doped ZnO Nanostructures |
| title_short | Microwave Irradiation to Produce High Performance Thermoelectric Material Based on Al Doped ZnO Nanostructures |
| title_sort | microwave irradiation to produce high performance thermoelectric material based on al doped zno nanostructures |
| topic | zinc oxide nanostructures microwave irradiation thermoelectric properties Al dopant TE generator module |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4352/10/7/610 |
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