Synthesis and Thermoelectrical Characterization of Lead Chalcogenide Nanowires

Abstract

Single‐crystalline arrays of PbS, PbSe, and PbTe nanowires (Figure: PbS) with diameters ranging from 40‐200 nm and lengths up to 100 μm have been synthesized by a chemical vapor transport approach. Electrical and thermal characterization was performed to investigate their potential as thermoelectric materials. Compared to bulk, the nanowires exhibit reduced thermal conductivity below 100 K by up to 3 orders of magnitude, suggesting that they may be promising thermoelectric materials.

Atomistic study of electronic structure of PbSe nanowires

“…It is used extensively in optical devices [3,6], lasers [7,8] and thermoelectric devices [4,9,10]. The large Bohr exciton radius of about 46nm in PbSe makes it a suitable system to study quantum confinement effects on electrons and holes [6,[11][12][13].…”

Lanthanum Telluride Nanowires: Formation, Doping, and Raman Studies

“…Different methods such as hydrothermal, solvothermal, chemical vapor transfer, electrodeposition, sonoelectrochemistry, and template based methods are employed to synthesize 1D tellurides. [6][7][8][9][10][11] Apart from these, self-sacrificing template technique is the straightforward strategy for the synthesis of 1D tellurides using 1D nanostructures as the template. Considering the reduction potential of TeO 3 2-/Te system (0.589 V) with other metals, tellurium nanostructures can be used as templates to form various tellurides.…”

Nanowires in Thermoelectric Devices

“…3). Thermal conductivity of PbSe nanowires was found to be lower than bulk PbSe by a factor of 10-1000 at various temperatures [38].…”

“…A higher temperature gradient can be maintained since the sensing points are suspended. Thermal conductivity is calculated by considering the diameter and the conduction length of the nanowire between two suspended structures, and the difference in temperature between the two ends [38]. Because of the complexity of the measurement device and sequential fabrication steps, a nanowire is picked from the bulk sample and placed on the fabricated device.…”