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Advances in the Applications of Graphene-Based Nanocomposites in Clean Energy Materials. CRYSTALS 2021. [DOI: 10.3390/cryst11010047] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/16/2022]
Abstract
Extensive use of fossil fuels can lead to energy depletion and serious environmental pollution. Therefore, it is necessary to solve these problems by developing clean energy. Graphene materials own the advantages of high electrocatalytic activity, high conductivity, excellent mechanical strength, strong flexibility, large specific surface area and light weight, thus giving the potential to store electric charge, ions or hydrogen. Graphene-based nanocomposites have become new research hotspots in the field of energy storage and conversion, such as in fuel cells, lithium-ion batteries, solar cells and thermoelectric conversion. Graphene as a catalyst carrier of hydrogen fuel cells has been further modified to obtain higher and more uniform metal dispersion, hence improving the electrocatalyst activity. Moreover, it can complement the network of electroactive materials to buffer the change of electrode volume and prevent the breakage and aggregation of electrode materials, and graphene oxide is also used as a cheap and sustainable proton exchange membrane. In lithium-ion batteries, substituting heteroatoms for carbon atoms in graphene composite electrodes can produce defects on the graphitized surface which have a good reversible specific capacity and increased energy and power densities. In solar cells, the performance of the interface and junction is enhanced by using a few layers of graphene-based composites and more electron-hole pairs are collected; therefore, the conversion efficiency is increased. Graphene has a high Seebeck coefficient, and therefore, it is a potential thermoelectric material. In this paper, we review the latest progress in the synthesis, characterization, evaluation and properties of graphene-based composites and their practical applications in fuel cells, lithium-ion batteries, solar cells and thermoelectric conversion.
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Transport properties of Ag decorated zigzag graphene nanoribbons as a function of temperature: a density functional based tight binding molecular dynamics study. ADSORPTION 2019. [DOI: 10.1007/s10450-019-00166-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/26/2022]
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Biele R, D’Agosta R. Beyond the State of the Art: Novel Approaches for Thermal and Electrical Transport in Nanoscale Devices. ENTROPY 2019; 21:e21080752. [PMID: 33267466 PMCID: PMC7515281 DOI: 10.3390/e21080752] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/05/2019] [Revised: 07/28/2019] [Accepted: 07/29/2019] [Indexed: 11/16/2022]
Abstract
Almost any interaction between two physical entities can be described through the transfer of either charge, spin, momentum, or energy. Therefore, any theory able to describe these transport phenomena can shed light on a variety of physical, chemical, and biological effects, enriching our understanding of complex, yet fundamental, natural processes, e.g., catalysis or photosynthesis. In this review, we will discuss the standard workhorses for transport in nanoscale devices, namely Boltzmann's equation and Landauer's approach. We will emphasize their strengths, but also analyze their limits, proposing theories and models useful to go beyond the state of the art in the investigation of transport in nanoscale devices.
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Affiliation(s)
- Robert Biele
- Institute for Materials Science and Max Bergmann Center of Biomaterials, TU Dresden, 01062 Dresden, Germany
- Correspondence: (R.B.); (R.D.); Tel.: +34-943-015-803 (R.D.)
| | - Roberto D’Agosta
- Nano-Bio Spectroscopy Group and European Theoretical Spectroscopy Facility (ETSF), Universidad del Pais Vasco CFM CSIC-UPV/EHU-MPC and DIPC, Av. Tolosa 72, 20018 San Sebastian, Spain
- IKERBASQUE, Basque Foundation for Science Maria Diaz de Haro 3, 6 Solairua, 48013 Bilbao, Spain
- Correspondence: (R.B.); (R.D.); Tel.: +34-943-015-803 (R.D.)
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Yang K, Ren JC, Qiu H, Wang JS. Phonon-driven electron scattering and magnetothermoelectric effect in two-dimensional tin selenide. JOURNAL OF PHYSICS. CONDENSED MATTER : AN INSTITUTE OF PHYSICS JOURNAL 2018; 30:055301. [PMID: 29261095 DOI: 10.1088/1361-648x/aaa33c] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/07/2023]
Abstract
The bulk tin selenide (SnSe) is the best thermoelectric material currently with the highest figure-of-merit due to strong phonon-phonon interactions. We investigate the effect of electron-phonon coupling (EPC) on the transport properties of a two-dimensional (2D) SnSe sheet. We demonstrate that EPC plays a key role in the scattering rate when the constant relaxation time approximation is deficient. The EPC strength is especially large in contrast to that of pristine graphene. The scattering rate depends sensitively on the system temperatures and the carrier densities when the Fermi energy approaches the band edge. We also investigate the magnetothermoelectric effect of the 2D SnSe. It is found that at low temperatures there is enormous magnetoelectrical resistivity and magnetothermal resistivity above 200%, suggesting possible potential applications in device design. Our results agree qualitatively well with the experimental data.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kaike Yang
- Department of Physics, National University of Singapore, Singapore 117551, Singapore
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Tran VT, Saint-Martin J, Dollfus P, Volz S. High thermoelectric and electronic performance in graphene nanoribbons by isotope and vacancy engineering. ACTA ACUST UNITED AC 2018. [DOI: 10.1016/j.matpr.2017.12.287] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
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Tran VT, Saint-Martin J, Dollfus P, Volz S. Optimizing the thermoelectric performance of graphene nano-ribbons without degrading the electronic properties. Sci Rep 2017; 7:2313. [PMID: 28539598 PMCID: PMC5443772 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-017-02230-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 36] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/07/2016] [Accepted: 04/10/2017] [Indexed: 11/21/2022] Open
Abstract
The enhancement of thermoelectric figure of merit ZT requires to either increase the power factor or reduce the phonon conductance, or even both. In graphene, the high phonon thermal conductivity is the main factor limiting the thermoelectric conversion. The common strategy to enhance ZT is therefore to introduce phonon scatterers to suppress the phonon conductance while retaining high electrical conductance and Seebeck coefficient. Although thermoelectric performance is eventually enhanced, all studies based on this strategy show a significant reduction of the electrical conductance. In this study we demonstrate that appropriate sources of disorder, including isotopes and vacancies at lowest electron density positions, can be used as phonon scatterers to reduce the phonon conductance in graphene ribbons without degrading the electrical conductance, particularly in the low-energy region which is the most important range for device operation. By means of atomistic calculations we show that the natural electronic properties of graphene ribbons can be fully preserved while their thermoelectric efficiency is strongly enhanced. For ribbons of width M = 5 dimer lines, room-temperature ZT is enhanced from less than 0.26 to more than 2.5. This study is likely to set the milestones of a new generation of nano-devices with dual electronic/thermoelectric functionalities.
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Affiliation(s)
- Van-Truong Tran
- EM2C, CentraleSupélec, Université Paris Saclay, CNRS, 92295, Châtenay Malabry, France.
| | - Jérôme Saint-Martin
- C2N, Université Paris-sud, Université Paris Saclay, CNRS, 91405, Orsay, France
| | - Philippe Dollfus
- C2N, Université Paris-sud, Université Paris Saclay, CNRS, 91405, Orsay, France
| | - Sebastian Volz
- EM2C, CentraleSupélec, Université Paris Saclay, CNRS, 92295, Châtenay Malabry, France. .,LIMMS, Institute of Industrial Science, University of Tokyo, CNRS-IIS UMI2820, 4-6-1 Komaba Meguro-Ku, Tokyo 153-8505, Japan.
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Chen KX, Luo ZY, Mo DC, Lyu SS. WSe2 nanoribbons: new high-performance thermoelectric materials. Phys Chem Chem Phys 2016; 18:16337-44. [DOI: 10.1039/c6cp02456d] [Citation(s) in RCA: 21] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/21/2022]
Abstract
Armchair WSe2 nanoribbon structures are predicted to exhibit outstanding thermoelectric performance, mainly attributed to the ribbon edge disorder.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kai-Xuan Chen
- School of Chemical Engineering and Technology
- Sun Yat-sen University
- Guangzhou 510275
- China
| | - Zhi-Yong Luo
- School of Chemical Engineering and Technology
- Sun Yat-sen University
- Guangzhou 510275
- China
| | - Dong-Chuan Mo
- School of Chemical Engineering and Technology
- Sun Yat-sen University
- Guangzhou 510275
- China
| | - Shu-Shen Lyu
- School of Chemical Engineering and Technology
- Sun Yat-sen University
- Guangzhou 510275
- China
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Biele R, D'Agosta R, Rubio A. Time-Dependent Thermal Transport Theory. PHYSICAL REVIEW LETTERS 2015; 115:056801. [PMID: 26274434 DOI: 10.1103/physrevlett.115.056801] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/18/2014] [Indexed: 06/04/2023]
Abstract
Understanding thermal transport in nanoscale systems presents important challenges to both theory and experiment. In particular, the concept of local temperature at the nanoscale appears difficult to justify. Here, we propose a theoretical approach where we replace the temperature gradient with controllable external blackbody radiations. The theory recovers known physical results, for example, the linear relation between the thermal current and the temperature difference of two blackbodies. Furthermore, our theory is not limited to the linear regime and goes beyond accounting for nonlinear effects and transient phenomena. Since the present theory is general and can be adapted to describe both electron and phonon dynamics, it provides a first step toward a unified formalism for investigating thermal and electronic transport.
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Affiliation(s)
- Robert Biele
- Nano-Bio Spectroscopy Group and European Theoretical Spectroscopy Facility (ETSF), Universidad del País Vasco, E-20018 San Sebastián, Spain
| | - Roberto D'Agosta
- Nano-Bio Spectroscopy Group and European Theoretical Spectroscopy Facility (ETSF), Universidad del País Vasco, E-20018 San Sebastián, Spain
- IKERBASQUE, Basque Foundation for Science, E-48013 Bilbao, Spain
| | - Angel Rubio
- Nano-Bio Spectroscopy Group and European Theoretical Spectroscopy Facility (ETSF), Universidad del País Vasco, E-20018 San Sebastián, Spain
- Max Planck Institute for the Structure and Dynamics of Matter, Hamburg 22761, Germany
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Culebras M, Gómez CM, Cantarero A. Review on Polymers for Thermoelectric Applications. MATERIALS (BASEL, SWITZERLAND) 2014; 7:6701-6732. [PMID: 28788208 PMCID: PMC5456124 DOI: 10.3390/ma7096701] [Citation(s) in RCA: 68] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/30/2014] [Revised: 08/23/2014] [Accepted: 09/05/2014] [Indexed: 01/26/2023]
Abstract
In this review, we report the state-of-the-art of polymers in thermoelectricity. Classically, a number of inorganic compounds have been considered as the best thermoelectric materials. Since the prediction of the improvement of the figure of merit by means of electronic confinement in 1993, it has been improved by a factor of 3-4. In the mean time, organic materials, in particular intrinsically conducting polymers, had been considered as competitors of classical thermoelectrics, since their figure of merit has been improved several orders of magnitude in the last few years. We review here the evolution of the figure of merit or the power factor during the last years, and the best candidates to compete with inorganic materials. We also outline the best polymers to substitute classical thermoelectric materials and the advantages they present in comparison with inorganic systems.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mario Culebras
- Materials Science Institute, University of Valencia, P.O. Box 22085, 46071 Valencia, Spain.
| | - Clara M Gómez
- Materials Science Institute, University of Valencia, P.O. Box 22085, 46071 Valencia, Spain.
| | - Andrés Cantarero
- Materials Science Institute, University of Valencia, P.O. Box 22085, 46071 Valencia, Spain.
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