---
OA_place: publisher
OA_type: hybrid
PlanS_conform: '1'
_id: '22734'
abstract:
- lang: eng
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.
acknowledged_ssus:
- _id: EM-Fac
- _id: LifeSc
- _id: NanoFab
- _id: MassSpec
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)'
article_processing_charge: Yes (via OA deal)
article_type: letter_note
author:
- first_name: Yu
full_name: Liu, Yu
id: 2A70014E-F248-11E8-B48F-1D18A9856A87
last_name: Liu
orcid: 0000-0001-7313-6740
- first_name: Tobias
full_name: Kleinhanns, Tobias
id: 8BD9DE16-AB3C-11E9-9C8C-2A03E6697425
last_name: Kleinhanns
orcid: 0000-0003-1537-7436
- first_name: Maria Chiara
full_name: Spadaro, Maria Chiara
last_name: Spadaro
- first_name: Aziz
full_name: Genç, Aziz
last_name: Genç
- first_name: Sharona
full_name: Horta, Sharona
id: 03a7e858-01b1-11ec-8b71-99ae6c4a05bc
last_name: Horta
- first_name: Navita
full_name: Navita, Navita
id: 6ebe278d-ba0b-11ee-8184-f34cdc671de4
last_name: Navita
orcid: 0000-0001-7408-8197
- first_name: Tommaso
full_name: Costanzo, Tommaso
id: D93824F4-D9BA-11E9-BB12-F207E6697425
last_name: Costanzo
orcid: 0000-0001-9732-3815
- first_name: Ewelina
full_name: Dutkiewicz, Ewelina
id: 0601cc46-c082-11ec-9b07-bb29641d1de9
last_name: Dutkiewicz
- first_name: Jordi
full_name: Arbiol, Jordi
last_name: Arbiol
- first_name: Min
full_name: Hong, Min
last_name: Hong
- first_name: Maria
full_name: Ibáñez, Maria
id: 43C61214-F248-11E8-B48F-1D18A9856A87
last_name: Ibáñez
orcid: 0000-0001-5013-2843
citation:
ama: Liu Y, Kleinhanns T, Spadaro MC, et al. Exploiting mismatch strain and the
β–α phase transition for microstructural engineering in thermoelectric Ag2Se.
ACS Energy Letters. 2026;11(8):5752-5762. doi:10.1021/acsenergylett.6c01499
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. ACS Energy Letters.
American Chemical Society. https://doi.org/10.1021/acsenergylett.6c01499
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.” ACS
Energy Letters. American Chemical Society, 2026. https://doi.org/10.1021/acsenergylett.6c01499.
ieee: Y. Liu et al., “Exploiting mismatch strain and the β–α phase transition
for microstructural engineering in thermoelectric Ag2Se,” ACS Energy Letters,
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.
mla: Liu, Yu, et al. “Exploiting Mismatch Strain and the β–α Phase Transition for
Microstructural Engineering in Thermoelectric Ag2Se.” ACS Energy Letters,
vol. 11, no. 8, American Chemical Society, 2026, pp. 5752–62, doi:10.1021/acsenergylett.6c01499.
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.
corr_author: '1'
das_tickbox: '0'
date_created: 2026-08-18T11:34:03Z
date_published: 2026-08-14T00:00:00Z
date_updated: 2026-08-19T05:53:33Z
day: '14'
ddc:
- '540'
department:
- _id: MassSpec
- _id: MaIb
- _id: GradSch
- _id: EM-Fac
doi: 10.1021/acsenergylett.6c01499
file:
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has_accepted_license: '1'
intvolume: ' 11'
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language:
- iso: eng
license: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
month: '08'
oa: 1
oa_version: Published Version
page: 5752-5762
project:
- _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 Energy Letters
publication_identifier:
eissn:
- 2380-8195
publication_status: published
publisher: American Chemical Society
quality_controlled: '1'
researchdata_availability: no
scopus_import: '1'
status: public
supplementarymaterial: yes
title: Exploiting mismatch strain and the β–α phase transition for microstructural
engineering in thermoelectric Ag2Se
tmp:
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legal_code_url: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode
name: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License (CC-BY 4.0)
short: CC BY (4.0)
type: journal_article
user_id: 2DF688A6-F248-11E8-B48F-1D18A9856A87
volume: 11
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...