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Description:

Thermoelectric (TE) materials offer a promising pathway toward achieving carbon neutrality by converting waste heat into electricity. The enhancement of their figure-of-merit (zT) depends on optimizing the composition of materials and nanostructures, reducing the thermal conductivity, and increasing the power factor. Cu2Se, a superionic material, achieves a zT of 0.4 at 300 K by facilitating Cu ion movement within its face-centered cubic lattice, effectively suppressing thermal conductivity. Herein, we present a novel TE material developed by doping CuxSe crystals of different compositions with FeSi2. We report a remarkable zT of 0.69 at 298 K for Cu2Se-based materials and reveal the presence of the CuO and Cu2O tiny crystals on the material surface, uniform dispersion of Si within the film, and formation of distinctive amorphous FeO. Our strategy holds great potential for notably advancing waste heat recovery in sustainable TE materials.

Rights:

• Creative Commons BY-NC-ND Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 International
  

Keyword: Thermoelectric, Cu2Se, Sputter, Thin film, Composite, FeSi2

Date published: 2025-07-26

Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC

Journal:

• Scientific Reports (ISSN: 20452322) vol. 15 issue. 1 27278

Funding:

• Japan Science and Technology Agency, Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research 24K07349
• Japan Science and Technology Agency, Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research 25K08337
• Japan Science and Technology Agency, CREST JPMJCR21O2
• Japan Science and Technology Agency, CREST JPMJCR21O2

Manuscript type: Publisher's version (Version of record)

MDR DOI:

First published URL: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-12345-4

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Updated at: 2025-08-27 12:30:36 +0900

Published on MDR: 2025-08-27 12:18:07 +0900