Dark-field transmission electron microscopy and the Debye-Waller factor of graphene

Crystal Structure and Thermoelectric Properties of Novel Quaternary Cu2MHf3S8 (M-Mn, Fe, Co, and Ni) Thiospinels with Low Thermal Conductivity

Uncovering of the origin of intrinsically low thermal conductivity in novel crystalline solids is among the main streams in modern thermoelectricity. Because of their earth-abundant nature and environmentally friendly content, Cu-based thiospinels are attractive functional semiconductors, including thermoelectric (TE) materials. Herein, we report the crystal structure, as well as electronic and TE properties of four new Cu₂MHf₃S₈ (M-Mn, Fe, Co, and Ni) thiospinels. The performed density functional theory calculations predicted the decrease of the band gap and transition from p- to n-type conductivity in the Mn-Fe-Co-Ni series, which was confirmed experimentally. The best TE performance in this work was observed for the Cu₂NiHf₃S₈ thiospinel due to its highest power factor and low thermal conductivity. Moreover, all the discovered compounds possess very low lattice thermal conductivity κ_lat over the investigated temperature range. The κ_lat for Cu₂CoHf₃S₈ has been found to be as low as 0.8 W m^-1 K^-1 at 298 K and 0.5 W m^-1 K^-1 at 673 K, which are significantly lower values compared to the other Cu-based thiospinels reported up to date. The strongly disturbed phonon transport of the investigated alloys mainly comes from the peculiar crystal structure where the large cubic unit cells contain many vacant octahedral voids. As it was evaluated from the Callaway approach and confirmed by the speed of sound measurements, such a crystal structure promotes the increase in lattice anharmonicity, which is the main reason for the low κ_lat. This work provides a guideline for the engineering of thermal transport in thiospinels and offers the discovered Cu₂MHf₃S₈ (M-Mn, Fe, Co, and Ni) compounds, as new promising functional materials with low lattice thermal conductivity.

Recent Progress in Multiphase Thermoelectric Materials

Thermoelectric materials, which directly convert thermal energy to electricity and vice versa, are considered a viable source of renewable energy. However, the enhancement of conversion efficiency in these materials is very challenging. Recently, multiphase thermoelectric materials have presented themselves as the most promising materials to achieve higher thermoelectric efficiencies than single-phase compounds. These materials provide higher degrees of freedom to design new compounds and adopt new approaches to enhance the electronic transport properties of thermoelectric materials. Here, we have summarised the current developments in multiphase thermoelectric materials, exploiting the beneficial effects of secondary phases, and reviewed the principal mechanisms explaining the enhanced conversion efficiency in these materials. This includes energy filtering, modulation doping, phonon scattering, and magnetic effects. This work assists researchers to design new high-performance thermoelectric materials by providing common concepts.

Thermal Transport in a 2D Nanophononic Solid: Role of bi-Phasic Materials Properties on Acoustic Attenuation and Thermal Diffusivity

Nanophononic materials have recently arisen as a promising way for controlling heat transport, mirroring the results in macroscopic phononic materials for sound transmission, filtering and attenuation applications. Here we present a Finite Element numerical simulation of the transient propagation of an acoustic Wave-Packet in a 2D nanophononic material, which allows to identify the effect of the nanostructuration on the acoustic attenuation length and thus on the transport regime for the vibrational energy. Assuming elastic behavior in the matrix and in the inclusions, we find that the rigidity contrast between them not only tunes the apparent attenuation length of the wave packet along its main trajectory, but gives rise to different behaviours, from weak to strong scattering, and waves pinning. As a consequence, different energy transport regimes can be identified in the three-parameter space of the excitation frequency, inclusions size and rigidity contrast, leading to the identification of a combination of parameters allowing for the shortest attenuation distance. These results could have applications both in the field of acoustic insulation, and for the control of heat transfer.

Nanoscale surface dynamics of Bi2Te3(111): observation of a prominent surface acoustic wave and the role of van der Waals interactions

We present a combined experimental and theoretical study of the surface vibrational modes of the topological insulator Bi2Te3. Using high-resolution helium-3 spin-echo spectroscopy we are able to resolve the acoustic phonon modes of Bi2Te3(111). The low energy region of the lattice vibrations is mainly dominated by the Rayleigh mode which has been claimed to be absent in previous experimental studies. The appearance of the Rayleigh mode is consistent with previous bulk lattice dynamics studies as well as theoretical predictions of the surface phonon modes. Density functional perturbation theory calculations including van der Waals corrections are in excellent agreement with the experimental data. Comparison of the experimental results with theoretically obtained values for films with a thickness of several layers further demonstrate, that for an accurate theoretical description of three-dimensional topological insulators with their layered structure the inclusion of van der Waals corrections is essential. The presence of a prominent surface acoustic wave and the contribution of van der Waals bonding to the lattice dynamics may hold important implications for the thermoelectric properties of thin-film and nanoscale devices.

Ab initio lattice dynamics and thermochemistry of layered bismuth telluride (Bi2Te3)

We present density-functional theory calculations of the lattice dynamics of bismuth telluride, yielding force constants, mean-square displacements and partial densities of phonon states which corroborate and complement previous nuclear inelastic scattering experiments. From these data, we derive an element- and energy-resolved view of the vibrational anharmonicity, quantified by the macroscopic Grüneisen parameter γ which results in 1.56. Finally, we calculate thermochemical properties in the quasiharmonic approximation, especially the heat capacity at constant pressure and the enthalpy of formation for bismuth telluride; the latter arrives at ΔHf (Bi2Te3)  =  -102 kJ mol(-1) at 298 K.