Electrochemical organized p-type Bi₂Te₃thermoelectric nanowire array

Wei Wang¹,Qinghua Huang¹, Jing Zhu¹, Jianzhong Zhang²

¹Dept.of Applied Chem., School of Chem. Eng. and Tech., Tianjin University , Tianjin300072, P. R. China

²TianjinInstitute of Power Sources, Tianjin 300381, P. R. China

P-type Bi₂Te₃ thermoelectricmaterials have been organized into the nano-pores of alumina films byelectrodeposition in the solutions containing Bi⁺³ and HTe₃^-1,and one-dimensional thermoelectric materials with nanowire array structure havebeen obtained. The results show that the doping content of tellurium in Bi₂Te₃nanowires can be easily controlled during the electrochemical organizingprocess by adjusting the deposition potential. The filling ratio of nanowiresin the pores of alumina films highly correlates with the structural uniformityof alumina film, the ionic concentration of Bi⁺³ and HTe₃^-1in the solution and the depositing rate of the nanowires. The TEManalyses indicate that the P-type Bi₂Te₃ nanowireselectrodeposited into the nano-pores of alumina film possess polycrystalstructure. The performance measurement verified that as the  thermoelectric materials areelectrochemically organized into nanowire array structure, their Seebeckcoefficient α can be improved greatly.