{"acknowledged_ssus":[{"_id":"EM-Fac"},{"_id":"LifeSc"},{"_id":"NanoFab"},{"_id":"MassSpec"}],"year":"2026","date_created":"2026-08-18T11:34:03Z","day":"14","language":[{"iso":"eng"}],"_id":"22734","intvolume":"        11","file":[{"creator":"dernst","success":1,"file_id":"22736","date_updated":"2026-08-19T05:52:41Z","file_name":"2026_ACSEnergyLetters_Liu.pdf","content_type":"application/pdf","checksum":"4d75c5a79d112c845c9eecba8838db38","access_level":"open_access","file_size":6806815,"date_created":"2026-08-19T05:52:41Z","relation":"main_file"}],"tmp":{"short":"CC BY (4.0)","name":"Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License (CC-BY 4.0)","legal_code_url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode","image":"/images/cc_by.png"},"corr_author":"1","issue":"8","scopus_import":"1","license":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/","publication_identifier":{"eissn":["2380-8195"]},"das_tickbox":"0","article_processing_charge":"Yes (via OA deal)","project":[{"_id":"9B8F7476-BA93-11EA-9121-9846C619BF3A","name":"HighTE: The Werner Siemens Laboratory for the High Throughput Discovery of Semiconductors for Waste Heat Recovery"}],"article_type":"letter_note","page":"5752-5762","OA_type":"hybrid","ddc":["540"],"department":[{"_id":"MassSpec"},{"_id":"MaIb"},{"_id":"GradSch"},{"_id":"EM-Fac"}],"abstract":[{"text":"Silver selenide (Ag2Se) is a promising near-room-temperature thermoelectric material, but its narrow stoichiometric window and β–α phase transition complicate reproducible microstructure control. Here, we present a mismatch-assisted microstructure engineering strategy in which Ag2Se particles are treated with polyanionic ZnSe complexes and consolidated through the β–α transition to introduce ZnSe nanoprecipitates, Ag2Se/ZnSe interfaces, and local strain fields. The crystallographic mismatch between ZnSe and Ag2Se, together with the Zn2+/Ag+ size difference, amplifies phase-transition-induced deformation and promotes high-density dislocations with periodic strain modulations. This defect architecture suppresses grain coarsening, removes excess Ag, limits Ag-interstitial formation, and reduces lattice thermal conductivity through lattice softening and multiscale phonon scattering. Ag2Se–4%ZnSe nanocomposites achieve a peak zTmax of 1.13 at 369 K and a zTavg of 1.08 from 300 to 380 K, demonstrating mismatch-driven defect engineering through the β–α phase transition as a route for optimizing Ag2Se-based thermoelectrics.","lang":"eng"}],"type":"journal_article","oa_version":"Published Version","OA_place":"publisher","doi":"10.1021/acsenergylett.6c01499","author":[{"first_name":"Yu","full_name":"Liu, Yu","id":"2A70014E-F248-11E8-B48F-1D18A9856A87","last_name":"Liu","orcid":"0000-0001-7313-6740"},{"orcid":"0000-0003-1537-7436","id":"8BD9DE16-AB3C-11E9-9C8C-2A03E6697425","last_name":"Kleinhanns","first_name":"Tobias","full_name":"Kleinhanns, Tobias"},{"last_name":"Spadaro","first_name":"Maria Chiara","full_name":"Spadaro, Maria Chiara"},{"full_name":"Genç, Aziz","first_name":"Aziz","last_name":"Genç"},{"id":"03a7e858-01b1-11ec-8b71-99ae6c4a05bc","last_name":"Horta","first_name":"Sharona","full_name":"Horta, Sharona"},{"full_name":"Navita, Navita","first_name":"Navita","last_name":"Navita","id":"6ebe278d-ba0b-11ee-8184-f34cdc671de4","orcid":"0000-0001-7408-8197"},{"full_name":"Costanzo, Tommaso","first_name":"Tommaso","last_name":"Costanzo","id":"D93824F4-D9BA-11E9-BB12-F207E6697425","orcid":"0000-0001-9732-3815"},{"first_name":"Ewelina","full_name":"Dutkiewicz, Ewelina","id":"0601cc46-c082-11ec-9b07-bb29641d1de9","last_name":"Dutkiewicz"},{"full_name":"Arbiol, Jordi","first_name":"Jordi","last_name":"Arbiol"},{"last_name":"Hong","first_name":"Min","full_name":"Hong, Min"},{"full_name":"Ibáñez, Maria","first_name":"Maria","orcid":"0000-0001-5013-2843","id":"43C61214-F248-11E8-B48F-1D18A9856A87","last_name":"Ibáñez"}],"user_id":"2DF688A6-F248-11E8-B48F-1D18A9856A87","publisher":"American Chemical Society","citation":{"ieee":"Y. Liu <i>et al.</i>, “Exploiting mismatch strain and the β–α phase transition for microstructural engineering in thermoelectric Ag2Se,” <i>ACS Energy Letters</i>, vol. 11, no. 8. American Chemical Society, pp. 5752–5762, 2026.","ista":"Liu Y, Kleinhanns T, Spadaro MC, Genç A, Horta S, Jakhar N, Costanzo T, Dutkiewicz E, Arbiol J, Hong M, Ibáñez M. 2026. Exploiting mismatch strain and the β–α phase transition for microstructural engineering in thermoelectric Ag2Se. ACS Energy Letters. 11(8), 5752–5762.","apa":"Liu, Y., Kleinhanns, T., Spadaro, M. C., Genç, A., Horta, S., Jakhar, N., … Ibáñez, M. (2026). Exploiting mismatch strain and the β–α phase transition for microstructural engineering in thermoelectric Ag2Se. <i>ACS Energy Letters</i>. American Chemical Society. <a href=\"https://doi.org/10.1021/acsenergylett.6c01499\">https://doi.org/10.1021/acsenergylett.6c01499</a>","ama":"Liu Y, Kleinhanns T, Spadaro MC, et al. Exploiting mismatch strain and the β–α phase transition for microstructural engineering in thermoelectric Ag2Se. <i>ACS Energy Letters</i>. 2026;11(8):5752-5762. doi:<a href=\"https://doi.org/10.1021/acsenergylett.6c01499\">10.1021/acsenergylett.6c01499</a>","mla":"Liu, Yu, et al. “Exploiting Mismatch Strain and the β–α Phase Transition for Microstructural Engineering in Thermoelectric Ag2Se.” <i>ACS Energy Letters</i>, vol. 11, no. 8, American Chemical Society, 2026, pp. 5752–62, doi:<a href=\"https://doi.org/10.1021/acsenergylett.6c01499\">10.1021/acsenergylett.6c01499</a>.","short":"Y. Liu, T. Kleinhanns, M.C. Spadaro, A. Genç, S. Horta, N. Jakhar, T. Costanzo, E. Dutkiewicz, J. Arbiol, M. Hong, M. Ibáñez, ACS Energy Letters 11 (2026) 5752–5762.","chicago":"Liu, Yu, Tobias Kleinhanns, Maria Chiara Spadaro, Aziz Genç, Sharona Horta, Navita Jakhar, Tommaso Costanzo, et al. “Exploiting Mismatch Strain and the β–α Phase Transition for Microstructural Engineering in Thermoelectric Ag2Se.” <i>ACS Energy Letters</i>. American Chemical Society, 2026. <a href=\"https://doi.org/10.1021/acsenergylett.6c01499\">https://doi.org/10.1021/acsenergylett.6c01499</a>."},"title":"Exploiting mismatch strain and the β–α phase transition for microstructural engineering in thermoelectric Ag2Se","date_published":"2026-08-14T00:00:00Z","status":"public","researchdata_availability":"no","has_accepted_license":"1","acknowledgement":"Open access funding provided by Institute of Science and Technology Austria. M.I. acknowledges financial support from ISTA and the Werner Siemens Foundation. The Scientific Service Units (SSU) of ISTA supported this work through resources provided by the Electron Microscopy Facility (EMF), the Lab Support Facility (LSF), the Nanofabrication Facility (NNF), and the Mass Spectrometry Facility. Y.L. acknowledges funding from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) (grant no. 22209034) and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (JZ2024HGTB0239). M.H. acknowledges funding from Australian Research Council (FT230100316), and the high-performance computing resources provided by National Computational Infrastructure (it39) and Pawsey Supercomputing Centre (pawsey1075). ICN2 acknowledges funding from Generalitat de Catalunya 2021SGR00457. The authors thank support from the project AMaDE (PID2023-149158OB-C43), funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033/ and by the “ERDF Away of making Europe”, by the “European Union”. ICN2 is supported by the Severo Ochoa program from Spanish MCIN/AEI (grant no.: CEX2021-001214-S) and is funded by the CERCA Programme/Generalitat de Catalunya. Authors acknowledge the use of instrumentation as well as the technical advice provided by the Joint Electron Microscopy Center at ALBA (JEMCA). ICN2 acknowledges funding from Grant IU16-014206 (METCAM-FIB) funded by the European Union through the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), with the support of the Ministry of Research and Universities, Generalitat de Catalunya. ICN2 is founding member of e-DREAM. (91)","PlanS_conform":"1","file_date_updated":"2026-08-19T05:52:41Z","supplementarymaterial":"yes","oa":1,"publication_status":"published","date_updated":"2026-08-19T05:53:33Z","volume":11,"quality_controlled":"1","month":"08","publication":"ACS Energy Letters"}