Microstructure and Nucleation Mechanism for Nanoprecipitates in PbTe-AgSbTe$_2$

ORAL

Abstract

Many recent advances in thermoelectric (TE) materials are attributed to their nanoscale constituents. Determination of the nanocomposite structures has represented a major experimental and computational challenge and eluded previous attempts. Here we present the first atomically resolved structures of high performance TE material PbTe-AgSbTe$_2$ by transmission electron microscopy imaging and density functional theory calculations. The results establish an accurate structural characterization for PbTe-AgSbTe$_2$ and identify the interplay of electric dipolar interactions and strain fields as the driving mechanism for nanoprecipitate nucleation and aggregation, which provides key insights for understanding a broad class of complex nanocomposite materials.

*This work was supported by DOE under DE-FC52-06NA26274 (UNLV), DE-FC26-04NT42278 (GM) and DE-AC02-98CH10886 (BNL). It also used resources at the National Center for Computational Sciences and the Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences at ORNL.

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Authors

  • Xuezhi Ke

    • University of Nevada, Las Vegas; East China Normal University

  • Changfeng Chen

    • Department of Physics and High Pressure Science and Engineering Center, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, Nevada 89154, USA
    • University of Nevada, Las Vegas
    • Department of Physics \& High Pressure Science and Engineering Center, University of Nevada Las Vegas

  • Jihui Yang

    • General Motors

  • Lijun Wu

    • Brookhaven National Laboratory

  • Juan Zhou

    • Brookhaven National Laboratory

  • Qian Li

    • Brookhaven National Laboratory

  • Yimei Zhu

    • Brookhaven National Laboratory

  • Paul R.C. Kent

    • Oak Ridge National Laboratory