---
_id: '10327'
abstract:
- lang: eng
  text: Composite materials offer numerous advantages in a wide range of applications,
    including thermoelectrics. Here, semiconductor–metal composites are produced by
    just blending nanoparticles of a sulfide semiconductor obtained in aqueous solution
    and at room temperature with a metallic Cu powder. The obtained blend is annealed
    in a reducing atmosphere and afterward consolidated into dense polycrystalline
    pellets through spark plasma sintering (SPS). We observe that, during the annealing
    process, the presence of metallic copper activates a partial reduction of the
    PbS, resulting in the formation of PbS–Pb–CuxS composites. The presence of metallic
    lead during the SPS process habilitates the liquid-phase sintering of the composite.
    Besides, by comparing the transport properties of PbS, the PbS–Pb–CuxS composites,
    and PbS–CuxS composites obtained by blending PbS and CuxS nanoparticles, we demonstrate
    that the presence of metallic lead decisively contributes to a strong increase
    of the charge carrier concentration through spillover of charge carriers enabled
    by the low work function of lead. The increase in charge carrier concentration
    translates into much higher electrical conductivities and moderately lower Seebeck
    coefficients. These properties translate into power factors up to 2.1 mW m–1 K–2
    at ambient temperature, well above those of PbS and PbS + CuxS. Additionally,
    the presence of multiple phases in the final composite results in a notable decrease
    in the lattice thermal conductivity. Overall, the introduction of metallic copper
    in the initial blend results in a significant improvement of the thermoelectric
    performance of PbS, reaching a dimensionless thermoelectric figure of merit ZT
    = 1.1 at 750 K, which represents about a 400% increase over bare PbS. Besides,
    an average ZTave = 0.72 in the temperature range 320–773 K is demonstrated.
acknowledgement: This work was supported by the European Regional Development Funds.
  M.L., Y.Z., X.H., and K.X. thank the China Scholarship Council for scholarship support.
  M. I. has been financially supported by IST Austria and the Werner Siemens Foundation.
  Y.L. acknowledges funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation
  program under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant agreement No. 754411. J.L. is a Serra
  Húnter fellow and is grateful to ICREA Academia program and projects MICINN/FEDER
  RTI2018-093996-B-C31 and GC 2017 SGR 128. ICN2 acknowledges funding from Generalitat
  de Catalunya 2017 SGR 327 and the Spanish MINECO project NANOGEN (PID2020-116093RB-C43).
  ICN2 was supported by the Severo Ochoa program from Spanish MINECO (grant no. SEV-2017-0706)
  and was funded by the CERCA Programme/Generalitat de Catalunya. X.H. thanks China
  Scholarship Council for scholarship support (201804910551). Part of the present
  work was performed in the framework of Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona Materials
  Science Ph.D. program.
article_processing_charge: No
article_type: original
author:
- first_name: Mengyao
  full_name: Li, Mengyao
  last_name: Li
- first_name: Yu
  full_name: Liu, Yu
  id: 2A70014E-F248-11E8-B48F-1D18A9856A87
  last_name: Liu
  orcid: 0000-0001-7313-6740
- first_name: Yu
  full_name: Zhang, Yu
  last_name: Zhang
- first_name: Xu
  full_name: Han, Xu
  last_name: Han
- first_name: Ke
  full_name: Xiao, Ke
  last_name: Xiao
- first_name: Mehran
  full_name: Nabahat, Mehran
  last_name: Nabahat
- first_name: Jordi
  full_name: Arbiol, Jordi
  last_name: Arbiol
- first_name: Jordi
  full_name: Llorca, Jordi
  last_name: Llorca
- first_name: Maria
  full_name: Ibáñez, Maria
  id: 43C61214-F248-11E8-B48F-1D18A9856A87
  last_name: Ibáñez
  orcid: 0000-0001-5013-2843
- first_name: Andreu
  full_name: Cabot, Andreu
  last_name: Cabot
citation:
  ama: Li M, Liu Y, Zhang Y, et al. PbS–Pb–CuxS composites for thermoelectric application.
    <i>ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces</i>. 2021;13(43):51373–51382. doi:<a href="https://doi.org/10.1021/acsami.1c15609">10.1021/acsami.1c15609</a>
  apa: Li, M., Liu, Y., Zhang, Y., Han, X., Xiao, K., Nabahat, M., … Cabot, A. (2021).
    PbS–Pb–CuxS composites for thermoelectric application. <i>ACS Applied Materials
    and Interfaces</i>. American Chemical Society . <a href="https://doi.org/10.1021/acsami.1c15609">https://doi.org/10.1021/acsami.1c15609</a>
  chicago: Li, Mengyao, Yu Liu, Yu Zhang, Xu Han, Ke Xiao, Mehran Nabahat, Jordi Arbiol,
    Jordi Llorca, Maria Ibáñez, and Andreu Cabot. “PbS–Pb–CuxS Composites for Thermoelectric
    Application.” <i>ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces</i>. American Chemical Society
    , 2021. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1021/acsami.1c15609">https://doi.org/10.1021/acsami.1c15609</a>.
  ieee: M. Li <i>et al.</i>, “PbS–Pb–CuxS composites for thermoelectric application,”
    <i>ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces</i>, vol. 13, no. 43. American Chemical
    Society , pp. 51373–51382, 2021.
  ista: Li M, Liu Y, Zhang Y, Han X, Xiao K, Nabahat M, Arbiol J, Llorca J, Ibáñez
    M, Cabot A. 2021. PbS–Pb–CuxS composites for thermoelectric application. ACS Applied
    Materials and Interfaces. 13(43), 51373–51382.
  mla: Li, Mengyao, et al. “PbS–Pb–CuxS Composites for Thermoelectric Application.”
    <i>ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces</i>, vol. 13, no. 43, American Chemical
    Society , 2021, pp. 51373–51382, doi:<a href="https://doi.org/10.1021/acsami.1c15609">10.1021/acsami.1c15609</a>.
  short: M. Li, Y. Liu, Y. Zhang, X. Han, K. Xiao, M. Nabahat, J. Arbiol, J. Llorca,
    M. Ibáñez, A. Cabot, ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces 13 (2021) 51373–51382.
corr_author: '1'
date_created: 2021-11-21T23:01:30Z
date_published: 2021-10-19T00:00:00Z
date_updated: 2025-04-14T07:43:47Z
day: '19'
department:
- _id: MaIb
doi: 10.1021/acsami.1c15609
ec_funded: 1
external_id:
  isi:
  - '000715852100070'
  pmid:
  - '34665616'
intvolume: '        13'
isi: 1
issue: '43'
keyword:
- CuxS
- PbS
- energy conversion
- nanocomposite
- nanoparticle
- solution synthesis
- thermoelectric
language:
- iso: eng
main_file_link:
- open_access: '1'
  url: https://upcommons.upc.edu/bitstream/2117/363528/1/Pb%20mengyao.pdf
month: '10'
oa: 1
oa_version: Submitted Version
page: 51373–51382
pmid: 1
project:
- _id: 260C2330-B435-11E9-9278-68D0E5697425
  call_identifier: H2020
  grant_number: '754411'
  name: ISTplus - Postdoctoral Fellowships
- _id: 9B8F7476-BA93-11EA-9121-9846C619BF3A
  name: 'HighTE: The Werner Siemens Laboratory for the High Throughput Discovery of
    Semiconductors for Waste Heat Recovery'
publication: ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces
publication_identifier:
  eissn:
  - 1944-8252
  issn:
  - 1944-8244
publication_status: published
publisher: 'American Chemical Society '
quality_controlled: '1'
scopus_import: '1'
status: public
title: PbS–Pb–CuxS composites for thermoelectric application
type: journal_article
user_id: 2DF688A6-F248-11E8-B48F-1D18A9856A87
volume: 13
year: '2021'
...