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Improved Thermoelectric Performance Of P-Type Polycrystalline Bi2te3 Via Hydrothermal Treatment With Alkali Metal Salts, Zhe Su

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The field of thermoelectric research has attracted a lot of interest in hope of helping address the energy crisis. In recent years, low-dimensional thermoelectric materials have been found promising and thus become a popular school of thought. However, the high complexity and cost for fabricating low-dimensional materials give rise to the attempt to further improve conventional bulk polycrystalline materials. Polycrystals are featured by numerous grain boundaries that can scatter heat-carrying phonons to significantly reduce the thermal conductivity κ whereas at the same time can unfortunately deteriorate the electrical resistivity ρ. Aiming at the dualism of the grain boundaries in determining …