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CuAgSe nanocrystals: colloidal synthesis, characterization and their thermoelectric performance

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Abstract

CuAgSe is a promising thermoelectric (TE) material for its superior carrier mobility and ultralow lattice thermal conductivity. Herein, we present a scalable colloidal method to prepare monodisperse CuAgSe nanocrystals with high yield. The collected powder sample was washed by a sulfur-free reagent of NaNH2 to remove the surface organic ligands (CuAgSe-W) and then annealed (CuAgSe-W-A). Both kinds of ligand-free samples were then hot pressed into dense pellets to measure the TE property. The results revealed that the crystal structure of both samples changed from low-temperature β-phase to high-temperature α-phase at around 465 K. Sample CuAgSe-W shows interesting temperature-dependent transition from N-type to P-type, which could be potentially used as thermal control transistor. Sample CuAgSe-W-A does not display this transition state but it exhibits potential for intermediate temperature TE applications with a figure-of-merit zT reaching 0.68 at 566 K.

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Acknowledgements

This work is supported by the National Science Foundation of China (NSFC) (Grants 21641007), and Natural Science Foundation of Anhui Province (Grant no. 1508085MB22), and Major Project of Education Department of Anhui Province (KJ2016SD63). We also thank the Key Laboratory of Environment Friendly Polymer Materials of Anhui Province. YZ and YL thank the China Scholarship Council for scholarship support. The authors thank Prof. Andreu Cabot from Catalonia Energy Research Institute for polishing language.

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  1. School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Anhui Province Key Laboratory of Chemistry for Inorganic/Organic Hybrid Functionalized Materials, Anhui University, Hefei, 230601, Anhui, People’s Republic of China

    Yong Zuo, Yu Liu, Qiong-Ping He, Ji-Ming Song, He-Lin Niu & Chang-Jie Mao

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  1. Yong Zuo
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  2. Yu Liu
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Correspondence to Ji-Ming Song.

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Zuo, Y., Liu, Y., He, QP. et al. CuAgSe nanocrystals: colloidal synthesis, characterization and their thermoelectric performance. J Mater Sci 53, 14998–15008 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10853-018-2676-7

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