Revealing the origin of dislocations in Pb1−xSb2x/3Se (0 < x ≤ 0.07)

Pengfei Nan; Yunjie Chang; Zhiwei Chen; Yanzhong Pei; Yongsheng Zhang; Yumei Wang; Binghui Ge

doi:10.1039/D0NR05382A

Revealing the origin of dislocations in Pb_1−xSb_2x/3Se (0 < x ≤ 0.07)†

Pengfei Nan,^a Yunjie Chang,‡^b Zhiwei Chen,^c Yanzhong Pei,

^c Yongsheng Zhang,*^d Yumei Wang*^b and Binghui Ge

*^ab

Author affiliations

* Corresponding authors

^a Key Laboratory of Structure and Functional Regulation of Hybrid Materials of Ministry of Education, Institutes of Physical Science and Information Technology, Anhui University, Hefei 230601, China
E-mail: Bhge@ahu.edu.cn

^b Beijing National Laboratory of Condensed Matter Physics, Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China
E-mail: wangym@iphy.ac.cn

^c Interdisciplinary Materials Research Center, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Tongji University, 4800 Caoan Road, Shanghai 201804, China

^d Key Laboratory of Materials Physics, Institute of Solid State Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Hefei 230031, China
E-mail: yshzhang@theory.issp.ac.cn

Abstract

Defect engineering is an effective route to improve the performance of thermoelectric materials, including Sb doped PbSe, but the formation mechanism of defects remains unclear. In the thermoelectric material Pb_1−xSb_2x/3Se (0 < x ≤ 0.07), a large number of dislocations have been reported, and they enhance intermediate-frequency phonon scattering, thereby improving the zT value. However, the microstructural origin of dislocations remains unclear. In this paper, via a combination of atomic resolution scanning transmission electron microscopy and density functional theory, we successfully revealed the microstructure of Pb_1−xSb_2x/3Se (x = 0–0.07) for in-depth understanding of the formation mechanism of dislocations. Plenty of zinc blende (ZB) nanostructures are found in the PbSe matrix with a rock salt (RS) structure, and the theoretical calculations confirm its viability from the point of view of formation energy. A similar ZB structure is identified in the dislocation cores of Sb-doped materials as well, and thus the formation mechanism of dislocations is discussed for this PbSe system. This result provides important guidance to understand the structural evolution in compounds with a RS structure, especially in high-performance lead chalcogenide thermoelectric materials.

This article is part of the themed collections: Editor’s Choice: Thermoelectric nanostructures and 2020 Nanoscale HOT Article Collection

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Article information

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1039/D0NR05382A
Article type: Paper
Submitted: 19 Jul 2020
Accepted: 24 Aug 2020
First published: 25 Aug 2020

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Nanoscale, 2020,12, 19165-19169

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Revealing the origin of dislocations in Pb_1−xSb_2x/3Se (0 < x ≤ 0.07)

P. Nan, Y. Chang, Z. Chen, Y. Pei, Y. Zhang, Y. Wang and B. Ge, Nanoscale, 2020, 12, 19165 DOI: 10.1039/D0NR05382A

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