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Bai W, Hua Y, Nan P, Dai S, Sun L, Huang X, Yang J, Ge B, Xiao C, Xie Y. Interlayer Phonon Coupling from Heavy and Light Sublayers in a Natural Van der Waals Superlattice. J Am Chem Soc 2024; 146:892-900. [PMID: 38151507 DOI: 10.1021/jacs.3c11379] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/29/2023]
Abstract
Layered compounds characterized by van der Waals gaps are often associated with relatively weak interlayer particle interactions. However, in specific scenarios, these seemingly feeble forces can exert an impact on interlayer interactions through subtle energy fluctuations, which can give rise to a diverse range of physical and chemical properties, particularly intriguing in the context of thermal transport. In this study, taking a natural superlattice composed of alternately stacked PbS and SnS2 sublayers as a model, we proposed that in a superlattice, there is strong hybridization between acoustic phonons of heavy sublayers and optical phonons of light sublayers. We identified newly generated vibration modes in the superlattice, such as interlayer shear and breathing, which exhibit lower sound velocity and contribute less to heat transport compared to their parent materials, which significantly alters the thermal behaviors of the superlattice compared to its bulk counterparts. Our findings on the behavior of interlayer phonons in superlattices not only can shed light on developing functional materials with enhanced thermal dissipation capabilities but also contribute to the broader field of condensed matter physics, offering insights into various fields, including thermoelectrics and phononic devices, and may pave the way for technological advancements in these areas.
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Affiliation(s)
- Wei Bai
- Hefei National Research Center for Physical Sciences at the Microscale, University of Science and Technology of China Hefei, Anhui 230026, P. R. China
- Institute of Energy, Hefei Comprehensive National Science Center Hefei, Anhui 230031, P. R. China
| | - Yang Hua
- Hefei National Research Center for Physical Sciences at the Microscale, University of Science and Technology of China Hefei, Anhui 230026, P. R. China
| | - Pengfei Nan
- Information Materials and Intelligent Sensing Laboratory of Anhui Province, Institutes of Physical Science and Information Technology, Anhui University Hefei, Anhui 230601, P. R. China
| | - Shengnan Dai
- Materials Genome Institute, Shanghai University, Shanghai 200444, P. R. China
| | - Liang Sun
- Hefei National Research Center for Physical Sciences at the Microscale, University of Science and Technology of China Hefei, Anhui 230026, P. R. China
| | - Xinlong Huang
- Hefei National Research Center for Physical Sciences at the Microscale, University of Science and Technology of China Hefei, Anhui 230026, P. R. China
| | - Jiong Yang
- Materials Genome Institute, Shanghai University, Shanghai 200444, P. R. China
| | - Binghui Ge
- Information Materials and Intelligent Sensing Laboratory of Anhui Province, Institutes of Physical Science and Information Technology, Anhui University Hefei, Anhui 230601, P. R. China
| | - Chong Xiao
- Hefei National Research Center for Physical Sciences at the Microscale, University of Science and Technology of China Hefei, Anhui 230026, P. R. China
- Institute of Energy, Hefei Comprehensive National Science Center Hefei, Anhui 230031, P. R. China
- Dalian National Laboratory for Clean Energy, Chinese Academy of Science Dalian, Liaoning 116023, P. R. China
| | - Yi Xie
- Hefei National Research Center for Physical Sciences at the Microscale, University of Science and Technology of China Hefei, Anhui 230026, P. R. China
- Institute of Energy, Hefei Comprehensive National Science Center Hefei, Anhui 230031, P. R. China
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Tian J, Ma W, Boulet P, Record MC. Electronic and Transport Properties of Strained and Unstrained Ge 2Sb 2Te 5: A DFT Investigation. MATERIALS (BASEL, SWITZERLAND) 2023; 16:5015. [PMID: 37512289 PMCID: PMC10385833 DOI: 10.3390/ma16145015] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/20/2023] [Revised: 07/09/2023] [Accepted: 07/11/2023] [Indexed: 07/30/2023]
Abstract
In recent years, layered chalcogenides have attracted interest for their appealing thermoelectric properties. We investigated the Ge2Sb2Te5 compound in two different stacking sequences, named stacking 1 (S1) and stacking 2 (S2), wherein the Ge and Sb atomic positions can be interchanged in the structure. The compound unit cell, comprising nine atoms, is made of two layers separated by a gap. We show, using the quantum theory of atoms in molecules, that the bonding across the layers has characteristics of transit region bonding, though with a close resemblance to closed-shell bonding. Both S1 and S2 are shown to bear a similar small gap. The full determination of their thermoelectric properties, including the Seebeck coefficient, electrical conductivity and electronic and lattice thermal conductivities, was carried out by solving the Boltzmann transport equation. We show that stacking 1 exhibits a larger Seebeck coefficient and smaller electrical conductivity than stacking 2, which is related to their small electronic gap difference, and that S1 is more suitable for thermoelectric application than S2. Moreover, under certain conditions of temperature and doping level, it could be possible to use S1-Ge2Sb2Te5 as both a p and n leg in a thermoelectric converter. Under biaxial, tensile and compressive strains, we observe that the thermoelectric properties are improved for both S1 and S2. Furthermore, the increase in the power factor of S1 in the cross-plane direction, namely perpendicular to the gap between the layers, shows that strains can counteract the electronic transport hindrance due to the gap.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jing Tian
- MADIREL, Department of Chemistry, CNRS, Aix-Marseille University, 13013 Marseille, France
- IM2NP, Department of Chemistry, CNRS, Aix-Marseille University, 13013 Marseille, France
| | - Weiliang Ma
- MADIREL, Department of Chemistry, CNRS, Aix-Marseille University, 13013 Marseille, France
- IM2NP, Department of Chemistry, CNRS, Aix-Marseille University, 13013 Marseille, France
| | - Pascal Boulet
- MADIREL, Department of Chemistry, CNRS, Aix-Marseille University, 13013 Marseille, France
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First-Principle Investigations on the Electronic and Transport Properties of PbBi 2Te 2X 2 (X = S/Se/Te) Monolayers. NANOMATERIALS 2021; 11:nano11112979. [PMID: 34835743 PMCID: PMC8624905 DOI: 10.3390/nano11112979] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/18/2021] [Revised: 10/20/2021] [Accepted: 10/30/2021] [Indexed: 11/25/2022]
Abstract
This paper reports first-principles calculations on PbBi2Te2S2, PbBi2Te2Se2 and PbBi2Te4 monolayers. The strain effects on their electronic and thermoelectric properties as well as on their stability have been investigated. Without strain, the PbBi2Te4 monolayer exhibits highest Seebeck coefficient with a maximum value of 671 μV/K. Under tensile strain the highest power factor are 12.38×1011 Wm−1K−2s−1, 10.74×1011 Wm−1K−2s−1 and 6.51×1011 Wm−1K−2s−1 for PbBi2Te2S2, PbBi2Te2Se2 and PbBi2Te4 at 3%, 2% and 1% tensile strains, respectively. These values are 85.9%, 55.0% and 3.3% larger than those of the unstrained structures.
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Ma W, Record MC, Tian J, Boulet P. Strain Effects on the Electronic and Thermoelectric Properties of n(PbTe)-m(Bi 2Te 3) System Compounds. MATERIALS 2021; 14:ma14154086. [PMID: 34361278 PMCID: PMC8348818 DOI: 10.3390/ma14154086] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/28/2021] [Revised: 07/18/2021] [Accepted: 07/19/2021] [Indexed: 11/21/2022]
Abstract
Owing to their low lattice thermal conductivity, many compounds of the n(PbTe)-m(Bi2Te3) homologous series have been reported in the literature with thermoelectric (TE) properties that still need improvement. For this purpose, in this work, we have implemented the band engineering approach by applying biaxial tensile and compressive strains using the density functional theory (DFT) on various compounds of this series, namely Bi2Te3, PbBi2Te4, PbBi4Te7 and Pb2Bi2Te5. All the fully relaxed Bi2Te3, PbBi2Te4, PbBi4Te7 and Pb2Bi2Te5 compounds are narrow band-gap semiconductors. When applying strains, a semiconductor-to-metal transition occurs for all the compounds. Within the range of open-gap, the electrical conductivity decreases as the compressive strain increases. We also found that compressive strains cause larger Seebeck coefficients than tensile ones, with the maximum Seebeck coefficient being located at −2%, −6%, −3% and 0% strain for p-type Bi2Te3, PbBi2Te4, PbBi4Te7 and Pb2Bi2Te5, respectively. The use of the quantum theory of atoms in molecules (QTAIM) as a complementary tool has shown that the van der Waals interactions located between the structure slabs evolve with strains as well as the topological properties of Bi2Te3 and PbBi2Te4. This study shows that the TE performance of the n(PbTe)-m(Bi2Te3) compounds is modified under strains.
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Affiliation(s)
- Weiliang Ma
- CNRS, IM2NP, Aix-Marseille University, University of Toulon, 13013 Marseille, France; (W.M.); (J.T.)
- CNRS, MADIREL, Aix-Marseille University, 13013 Marseille, France;
| | - Marie-Christine Record
- CNRS, IM2NP, Aix-Marseille University, University of Toulon, 13013 Marseille, France; (W.M.); (J.T.)
- Correspondence:
| | - Jing Tian
- CNRS, IM2NP, Aix-Marseille University, University of Toulon, 13013 Marseille, France; (W.M.); (J.T.)
- CNRS, MADIREL, Aix-Marseille University, 13013 Marseille, France;
| | - Pascal Boulet
- CNRS, MADIREL, Aix-Marseille University, 13013 Marseille, France;
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