Browsing by Author "Puthran, S."

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    Defect-engineered single crystal Bi2Te3 via Sb and Se doping for enhanced thermoelectric performance
    (Springer, 2025) Puthran, S.; Hegde, G.S.; Prabhu, A.N.; Wang, Y.-L.; Kuo, Y.K.; Joshi, S.; Udayashankar, N.K.; Nayak, R.
    The limitation of the single crystal melt growth method to tune the microstructure of the materials in a controlled way and the need for enhancing the thermoelectric properties of single crystal grown Bismuth telluride (Bi2Te3), through defect and microstructural engineering, has motivated this work. In this work, we address this limitation through a controlled doping strategy using antimony (Sb) and selenium (Se) to introduce targeted defects and microstructural modifications within single-crystalline Bi2Te3. Sb and Se substitutions create atomic scale strain, point defects, and micro-grain structures, enhancing phonon scattering without significantly disrupting the crystalline order. The resulting defect-engineered single crystals exhibit improved thermoelectric performance, with a notable reduction in lattice thermal conductivity and retention of excellent electrical properties. The co-doped compositions, Bi2Te2.7Se0.3 and (Bi0.98Sb0.02)2Te2.7Se0.3, exhibited significantly enhanced thermoelectric performance, with Seebeck coefficients reaching ~ 253 ?V/K and ? 211 ?V/K, respectively, over the 10–400 K range. The power factor improved remarkably, showing a ~ 30-fold increase for Bi2Te2.7Se0.3 and ~ 20-fold for the Sb-doped variant, while the figure of merit (ZT) improved by ~ 28.5 and ~ 14 times, respectively. Further, a flexible thermoelectric device fabricated from these optimized materials generated output power of 2.7 nW and 3.35 nW at ambient temperature. The non-monotonic variation of the Seebeck coefficient with Sb content, showing an optimal enhancement at x = 0.04, highlights the delicate balance between carrier concentration and band structure modification, emphasizing moderate Sb substitution achieves the most favorable conditions for thermoelectric performance. Our results present a scalable strategy for bridging the performance gap between pristine single crystals and heavily nanostructured thermoelectrics, opening new avenues for high-efficiency energy harvesting devices. © The Author(s) 2025.
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    Optimizing thermoelectric properties of Bi2Te3 via Sb and Se Co-doping: experimental insights and finite elemental simulations using COMSOL
    (Springer, 2025) Puthran, S.; Prabhu, A.N.; Kamble, M.; Babu, P.D.; Joshi, S.; Udayashankar, N.K.
    In this study, we investigated the impact of antimony (Sb) and selenium (Se) co-dopants on the thermoelectric properties of bismuth telluride (Bi2Te3). Our findings reveal that Sb doping significantly enhances the electrical conductivity of the material, increasing it by a factor of 2.83 for (Bi0.98Sb0.02)2Te2.7Se0.3, primarily due to an increase in carrier concentration. The electrical resistivity of pristine Bi2Te3 at 300 K is 2.79 × 10?4 ?·m, which decreases substantially to 0.006 × 10?4 ?·m at 303 K with Sb doping at x = 0.02. Additionally, (Bi0.96Sb0.04)2Te2.7Se0.3 composition achieves the highest power factor of 9.744 × 10?5 W/m·K2 at 300 K, a 3-times improvement over the pristine Bi2Te3 (3.143 × 10?5 W/m·K2). The ZT value of Bi2Te2.7Se0.3 is 3.5 times higher than that of the pristine material at 350 K. COMSOL simulations support the experimental findings, revealing a maximum temperature gradient of 35 °C (hot end: 20 °C, cold end: ? 15 °C) for the (Bi0.98Sb0.02)2Te2.7Se0.3 module with comparable p-type and n-type parameters. The increased temperature gradient in the COMSOL simulation correlates with the improved thermoelectric performance observed experimentally, indicating that co-doping Bi2Te3 with Sb and Se effectively enhances its thermoelectric properties. © The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2025.