Tailoring Electrical Transport Across Metal–Thermoelectric Interfaces Using a Nanomolecular Monolayer

Cardinal, Thomas; Devender, -; Borca‐Tasciuc, Theodorian; Ramanath, Ganpati

doi:10.1021/acsami.5b08990

Cited by 20 publications

(23 citation statements)

References 28 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…We did not see a clear visible contrast at the Al/ZrTe 5 interface in the SEM images (Figure S1 in the Supporting Information), which indicates there is no significant Al atom diffusion into ZrTe 5 . This is in contrast to previous work showing that metal atoms, such as Pd, can diffuse into ZrTe 5 crystals when they are in contact, and other metal atoms (e.g., Cu, Ni, Co, or Fe) diffuse into topological insulators (e.g., Bi 2 Se 3 ) and thermoelectric materials (e.g., Bi 2 Te 3 ) …”

Section: Resultscontrasting

confidence: 97%

Record-Low and Anisotropic Thermal Conductivity of a Quasi-One-Dimensional Bulk ZrTe₅ Single Crystal

Zhu

Feng

Mills

et al. 2018

ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Zirconium pentatelluride (ZrTe 5 ) has recently attracted renewed interest owing to many of its newly discovered extraordinary physical properties, such as 2D and 3D topological-insulator behavior, pressure-induced superconductivity, Weyl semimetal behavior, Zeeman splitting, and resistivity anomaly. The quasi-one-dimensional structure of single-crystal ZrTe 5 also promises large anisotropy in its thermal properties, which have not yet been studied. In this work, via timedomain thermoreflectance measurements, ZrTe 5 single crystals are discovered to possess a record-low thermal conductivity along the b-axis (through-plane), as small as 0.33 ± 0.03 W m −1 K −1 at room temperature. This ultralow b-axis thermal conductivity is 12 times smaller than its a-axis thermal conductivity (4 ± 1 W m −1 K −1 ) owing to the material's asymmetrical crystalline structure. First-principles calculations are further conducted to reveal the physical origins of the ultralow b-axis thermal conductivity, which can be attributed to: (1) the resonant bonding and strong lattice anharmonicity induced by electron lone pairs, (2) the weak interlayer van der Waals interactions, and (3) the heavy mass of Te atoms, which results in low phonon group velocity. This work sheds light on the design and engineering of high-efficiency thermal insulators for applications such as thermal barrier coatings, thermoelectrics, thermal energy storage, and thermal management.

show abstract

Section: Resultscontrasting

confidence: 97%

Record-Low and Anisotropic Thermal Conductivity of a Quasi-One-Dimensional Bulk ZrTe₅ Single Crystal

Zhu

Feng

Mills

et al. 2018

ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…This may be due to two combined effects. One is the reduction of some compounds at the interface, which decreases the R c . Another is the increase of the R sh from TLM, which may result from the lower doping effect of Cu on Bi 2 Te 3 through diffusion.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Controllable Electrical Contact Resistance between Cu and Oriented-Bi₂Te₃ Film via Interface Tuning

Kong

Zhu

Cao

et al. 2017

ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The contact resistance between metals and semiconductors has become critical for the design of thin-film thermoelectric devices with their continuous miniaturization. Herein, we report a novel interface tuning method to regulate the contact resistance at the BiTe-Cu interface, and three BiTe films with different oriented microstructures are obtained. The lowest contact resistivity (∼10 Ω cm) is observed between highly (00l) oriented BiTe and Cu film, nearly an order of magnitude lower than other orientations. This significant decrease of contact resistivity is attributed to the denser film connections, lower lattice misfit, larger effective conducting contact area, and smaller width of the surface depletion region. Meanwhile, our results show that the reduction of contact resistance has little dependence on the interfacial diffusion based on the little change in contact resistivity after the introduction of an effective Ti barrier layer. Our work provides a new idea for the mitigation of contact resistivity in thin-film thermoelectric devices and also gives certain guidance for the size design of the next-level miniaturized devices.

show abstract

“…But, loading-frequency-dependence of interfacial fatigue, and related phenomena, remain largely unexplored. Our prior work has shown that introducing an interfacial molecular nanolayer (MNL) in model polymer-metal-ceramic structures can yield multifold increases in fracture energy under static loading 16 – 19 , enhance thermal 20 and electronic 21 – 25 transport, inhibit diffusion 26 – 28 , and alter phase formation 29 . However, the effects of cyclic loading on the fracture behavior of such molecularly modified model systems are not known.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Frequency-tunable toughening in a polymer-metal-ceramic stack using an interfacial molecular nanolayer

Kwan¹,

Braccini²,

Lane³

et al. 2018

Nat Commun

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Interfacial toughening in composite materials is reasonably well understood for static loading, but little is known for cyclic loading. Here, we demonstrate that introducing an interfacial molecular nanolayer at the metal-ceramic interface of a layered polymer-metal-ceramic stack triples the fracture energy for ~75–300 Hz loading, yielding 40% higher values than the static-loading fracture energy. We show that this unexpected frequency-dependent toughening is underpinned by nanolayer-induced interface strengthening, which facilitates load transfer to, and plasticity in, the polymer layer. Above a threshold interfacial bond strength, the toughening magnitude and frequency range are primarily controlled by the frequency- and temperature-dependent rheological properties of the polymer. These results indicate the tunability of the toughening behavior through suitable choice of interfacial molecular layers and polymers. Our findings open up possibilities for realizing novel composites with inorganic-organic interfaces, e.g., arresting crack growth or stimulating controlled fracture triggered by loads with specific frequency characteristics.

show abstract

Tailoring Electrical Transport Across Metal–Thermoelectric Interfaces Using a Nanomolecular Monolayer

Cited by 20 publications

References 28 publications

Record-Low and Anisotropic Thermal Conductivity of a Quasi-One-Dimensional Bulk ZrTe₅ Single Crystal

Record-Low and Anisotropic Thermal Conductivity of a Quasi-One-Dimensional Bulk ZrTe₅ Single Crystal

Controllable Electrical Contact Resistance between Cu and Oriented-Bi₂Te₃ Film via Interface Tuning

Frequency-tunable toughening in a polymer-metal-ceramic stack using an interfacial molecular nanolayer

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About

Tailoring Electrical Transport Across Metal–Thermoelectric Interfaces Using a Nanomolecular Monolayer

Cited by 20 publications

References 28 publications

Record-Low and Anisotropic Thermal Conductivity of a Quasi-One-Dimensional Bulk ZrTe5 Single Crystal

Record-Low and Anisotropic Thermal Conductivity of a Quasi-One-Dimensional Bulk ZrTe5 Single Crystal

Controllable Electrical Contact Resistance between Cu and Oriented-Bi2Te3 Film via Interface Tuning

Frequency-tunable toughening in a polymer-metal-ceramic stack using an interfacial molecular nanolayer

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About

Record-Low and Anisotropic Thermal Conductivity of a Quasi-One-Dimensional Bulk ZrTe₅ Single Crystal

Record-Low and Anisotropic Thermal Conductivity of a Quasi-One-Dimensional Bulk ZrTe₅ Single Crystal

Controllable Electrical Contact Resistance between Cu and Oriented-Bi₂Te₃ Film via Interface Tuning