Investigating the key role of carrier transport mechanism in SnSe nanoflakes with enhanced thermoelectric power factor

Abstract

Abstract A novel SnSe nanoflake system is explored for its thermoelectric properties from both experiments and ab initio study. The nanoflakes of the low temperature phase of SnSe (Pnma) are synthesized employing a fast and efficient refluxing method followed by spark plasma sintering at two different temperatures. We report an enhanced power factor (12–67 μW mK− 2 in the temperature range 300–600 K) in our p-type samples. We find that the prime reason for a high PF in our samples is a significantly improved electrical conductivity (1050–2180 S m−1 in the temperature range 300–600 K). From our ab initio band structure calculations accompanied with the models of temperature and surface dependent carrier scattering mechanisms, we reveal that an enhanced electrical conductivity is due to the reduced carrier-phonon scattering in our samples. The transport calculations are performed using the Boltzmann transport equation within relaxation time approximation. With our combined experimental and theoretical study, we demonstrate that the thermoelectric properties of p-type Pnma-SnSe could be improved by tuning the carrier scattering mechanisms with a control over the spark plasma sintering temperature.