Enhanced thermoelectric performance of silicon powder arrays by remotely doping

Abstract

We report improved thermoelectric (TE) properties of mesostructured silicon powder arrays simply prepared by die-pressing without sintering. In contrast to bromoethane's modest effect, the symmetric dibromoethane molecule coupling could significantly increase the conductivity of Si powder array TE device, from 12.7 S cm−1 of a silicon powder array to 62.3 S cm−1, which is possibly caused by the high electronic transmission probability of symmetric organic molecule–Si crystal coupling, and additionally enhanced by Si bandgap narrowing and defect states of an organic–inorganic interface identified by UV–vis absorption spectra and photoluminescence spectroscopy. Boosted by the very low thermal conductivity (0.58 W m−1 K−1), the dimensionless figure of merit, the ZT value of an Si powder array remotely doped by dibromoethane, ∼0.173, was obtained at 385 K, which is about 17 times higher than that of the bulk Si. An Si–organic hybrid TE device shows potentials to approach the threshold of practical applications with moderate ZT performance and low cost.