Abstract The inclusion of secondary phase in a matrix has been proven effective in diverse regimes of thermoelectric (TE) material research intended to attain high thermoelectric performance. Herein, we show that the introduction of semiconducting Zn4Sb3 alloys into a Bi0.5Sb1.5Te3 matrix to form ZnTe nanophase in situ causes enhanced electrical conductivity and reduced thermal conductivity. This is due to increase in the carrier concentration and intensified phonon scattering at interface potentials. These simultaneously increased the power factor by 17 % and achieved a remarkable reduction (25 %) of lattice thermal conductivity at 350 K for BST/2 wt% Zn4Sb3 composites. As a result, the largest value of ZT (1.35) was obtained at 350 K, which is 26 % higher than that of the Bi0.5Sb1.5Te3 matrix at the same temperature. Moreover, the maximum conversion efficiency was about 8.74 % at ΔT =200 K for BST/2 wt% Zn4Sb3 composites, which is 25 % higher than that of a bare BST sample.

中文翻译：

---

通过异质界面势垒散射增强 Bi0.5Sb1.5Te3 复合材料的热电性能

摘要 在旨在获得高热电性能的热电 (TE) 材料研究的不同领域中，已证明在基质中包含第​​二相是有效的。在此，我们展示了将半导体 Zn4Sb3 合金引入 Bi0.5Sb1.5Te3 基体以原位形成 ZnTe 纳米相会导致导电性增强和导热性降低。这是由于载流子浓度的增加和界面电位下声子散射的加剧。对于 BST/2 wt% Zn4Sb3 复合材料，这些同时将功率因数提高了 17%，并在 350 K 下实现了晶格热导率的显着降低（25%）。结果，在 350 K 时获得了 ZT 的最大值（1.35），比相同温度下的 Bi0.5Sb1.5Te3 基体高 26%。而且，