{"title":"Room-temperature FeSi<sub>2</sub>-doped Cu<sub>2</sub>Se thermoelectric films with enhanced figure of merit.","authors":"Masahiro Goto, Michiko Sasaki, Taku Moronaga, Toru Hara, Yibin Xu","doi":"10.1038/s41598-025-12345-4","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Thermoelectric (TE) materials offer a promising pathway toward achieving carbon neutrality by converting waste heat into electricity. The enhancement of their figure-of-merit (zT) depends on optimizing the composition of materials and nanostructures, reducing the thermal conductivity, and increasing the power factor. Cu<sub>2</sub>Se, a superionic material, achieves a zT of 0.4 at 300 K by facilitating Cu ion movement within its face-centered cubic lattice, effectively suppressing thermal conductivity. Herein, we present a novel TE material developed by doping Cu<sub>x</sub>Se crystals of different compositions with FeSi<sub>2</sub>. We report a remarkable zT of 0.69 at 298 K for Cu<sub>2</sub>Se-based materials and reveal the presence of the CuO and Cu<sub>2</sub>O tiny crystals on the material surface, uniform dispersion of Si within the film, and formation of distinctive amorphous FeO. Our strategy holds great potential for notably advancing waste heat recovery in sustainable TE materials.</p>","PeriodicalId":21811,"journal":{"name":"Scientific Reports","volume":"15 1","pages":"27278"},"PeriodicalIF":3.9000,"publicationDate":"2025-07-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12297260/pdf/","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Scientific Reports","FirstCategoryId":"103","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-12345-4","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"综合性期刊","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"MULTIDISCIPLINARY SCIENCES","Score":null,"Total":0}
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Abstract
Thermoelectric (TE) materials offer a promising pathway toward achieving carbon neutrality by converting waste heat into electricity. The enhancement of their figure-of-merit (zT) depends on optimizing the composition of materials and nanostructures, reducing the thermal conductivity, and increasing the power factor. Cu2Se, a superionic material, achieves a zT of 0.4 at 300 K by facilitating Cu ion movement within its face-centered cubic lattice, effectively suppressing thermal conductivity. Herein, we present a novel TE material developed by doping CuxSe crystals of different compositions with FeSi2. We report a remarkable zT of 0.69 at 298 K for Cu2Se-based materials and reveal the presence of the CuO and Cu2O tiny crystals on the material surface, uniform dispersion of Si within the film, and formation of distinctive amorphous FeO. Our strategy holds great potential for notably advancing waste heat recovery in sustainable TE materials.
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