Sun, Fu-Hua, Dong, Jinfeng, Dey, Shaugath, Asfandiyar, Wu, Chao-Feng, Pan, Yu, Tang, Huaichao, and Li, Jing-Feng
Cu12Sb4S13tetrahedrite has received great attention as an earth-abundant and environmental-friendly thermoelectric material. This work aims to uncover the thermoelectric performance-enhancing effect and the mechanism of nickel doping on tetrahedrite. A series of Cu12−xNixSb4S13−δ(x= 0.5, 0.7, 1.0, 1.5 and 2.0) compounds were synthesized by mechanical alloying combined with spark plasma sintering. It is found that the thermal conductivity sharply reduces with increasing Ni content over the entire temperature range, < 0.9 W m−1K−1, accompanied with an enhanced thermoelectric power factor. The model predicted that the reduced lattice thermal conductivity is attributed to mid-frequency phonon scattering, caused by precipitates and dislocations resulting from Ni doping. Consequently, a high ZTvalue up to 0.95 at 723 K was achieved for Cu11NiSb4S13−δ, corresponding to a ∼46% increase over non-doped Cu12Sb4S13−δ. Furthermore, the cyclic measurement showed that the Ni-doped tetrahedrites displayed high chemical stability. Cu12Sb4S13是一种储量丰富、 环境友好的天然矿物, 被热电领域普遍关注. 本研究旨在揭示Ni掺杂提高黝铜矿材料热电性能的机理. 采用机械合金化(MA)结合放电等离子体烧结(SPS)的方法制备出Cu12−xNixSb4S13−δ(x= 0.5, 0.7, 1.0, 1.5, 2.0)样品. 实验结果表明, 在测量温度范围内(323–723 K), 随着Ni含量的增加, 样品的热导率急剧下降(< 0.9 W m−1K−1), 同时热电功率因子逐渐增加. 理论模型计算表明, 晶格热导率的降低主要来源于Ni掺杂引起的析出相及位错对中频声子的强散射作用. 由于较低的热导率和较高的功率因子, Cu11NiSb4S13−δ样品在723 K时获得最高ZT值0.95, 相对于未掺杂样品, 其热电性能提高了46%. 同时, 热循环测试表明, 通过Ni掺杂提高了黝铜矿热电材料的化学稳定性.