High thermoelectric properties realized in earth abundant Bi2S3 bulk materials via Se and Cl co-doping in solution synthesis process

Bi 2 S 3 -based alloys are considered promising thermoelectric materials due to their large Seebeck coefficient and low lattice thermal conductivity . However, low electrical conductivity usually leads to poor electrical transport properties, which seriously restricts their further application in thermoelectric refrigeration and/or power generation. In this work, Bi 2 S 3 with high electrical transport properties is synthesized hydrothermally via Se and Cl co-doping. The maximum electrical conductivity value of 483 S cm −1 was obtained for the Bi 2 S 2.4 Se 0.4 Cl 0.20 sample at room temperature. The significant improvement of electrical conductivity gives rise to a high average power factor of 411 μW m −1 K −2 during the measuring temperature range and a peak value of 456 μW m −1 K −2 at 673 K. Benefiting from the largely improved electrical transport properties, a superior ZT value of approximately 0.66 and ZT ave . of 0.36 were obtained for Bi 2 S 2.4 Se 0.4 Cl 0.20 , and the theoretically calculated conversion efficiency reached 5.7%. The results indicate that Bi 2 S 3 is a promising candidate for thermoelectric applications at medium temperatures.