High-Performance PbTe Thermoelectric Films by Scalable and Low-Cost Printing

Thermoelectric (TE) technology has a significant impact on low-grade waste heat recovery, increasing the efficiency of energy usage and reducing carbon emissions. Two of the big obstacles for wide application of this technology, however, are the high fabrication cost and low efficiency of thermoelectric modules. By employing Pb_0.98Na_0.02Te-4 mol % SrTe powder, which is one group of superior thermoelectric materials, this work explores the possibility of making PbTe-SrTe-based thermoelectric films via a scalable, low-cost screen printing method and investigates ways of further enhancing their performance. Addition of tellurium powder can significantly increase the thermoelectric performance of the printed PbTe-SrTe films through doping and enhancement of interparticle connection. The conservative estimate of thermoelectric figure of merit, ZT, is above 1.0 at 350 °C for PbTe-SrTe 2 wt % Te sample, which is among the highest for printed thermoelectric films. This opens up a new, low-cost direction for manufacturing high-performance thermoelectric devices.