Coherent Ag-rich nanoprecipitates/β-Ag2Se flexible film with unprecedented thermoelectric performance by liquid-like sintering
Abstract β-Ag2Se holds a great promise for wearable thermoelectric generators due to its good mechanical properties and biocompatibility. However, optimizing its power factor through alterations in the Ag/Se stoichiometric ratio or incorporating secondary phases has reached the limitation. This work...
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Nature Portfolio
2025-07-01
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| Series: | Nature Communications |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-61079-4 |
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| author | Jie Gao Jiahui Li Lei Miao Lida Jia Pengfei Qiu Tingwei Yin Sijing Zhu Xinyu Yang Jia-Chen Guo Jun-Liang Chen Xiaoyang Wang Eiji Nishibori Tomohiro Sato Xun Shi |
| author_facet | Jie Gao Jiahui Li Lei Miao Lida Jia Pengfei Qiu Tingwei Yin Sijing Zhu Xinyu Yang Jia-Chen Guo Jun-Liang Chen Xiaoyang Wang Eiji Nishibori Tomohiro Sato Xun Shi |
| author_sort | Jie Gao |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Abstract β-Ag2Se holds a great promise for wearable thermoelectric generators due to its good mechanical properties and biocompatibility. However, optimizing its power factor through alterations in the Ag/Se stoichiometric ratio or incorporating secondary phases has reached the limitation. This work adopts a liquid-like sintering strategy, namely employing the migration and precipitation of silver ions from metallic silver to the silver selenide during the spark plasma sintering process to construct significantly sized and coherent Ag-rich nanoprecipitates within flexible Ag/β-Ag2Se composite films, thereby achieving an unprecedented power factor exceeding 4000 μWm−1K−2 at 303 K. The Ag-rich nanoprecipitates play a crucial role in elevating the carrier concentration, enhancing the density-of-states effective mass, and mitigating carrier scattering caused by phase interfaces and acoustic phonons. The generator containing 5 pieces of optimal films shows an normalized output power density of 10.89 μWcm−1K−2 under a temperature difference of 26.0 K. This study strongly suggests that the creation of Ag-rich nanoprecipitates is an effective avenue for improving the electrical performance of β-Ag2Se-based thermoelectric materials. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-ebd32e76fa96433fb1baba784d0f44b3 |
| institution | DOAJ |
| issn | 2041-1723 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-07-01 |
| publisher | Nature Portfolio |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Nature Communications |
| spelling | doaj-art-ebd32e76fa96433fb1baba784d0f44b32025-08-20T03:03:28ZengNature PortfolioNature Communications2041-17232025-07-0116111110.1038/s41467-025-61079-4Coherent Ag-rich nanoprecipitates/β-Ag2Se flexible film with unprecedented thermoelectric performance by liquid-like sinteringJie Gao0Jiahui Li1Lei Miao2Lida Jia3Pengfei Qiu4Tingwei Yin5Sijing Zhu6Xinyu Yang7Jia-Chen Guo8Jun-Liang Chen9Xiaoyang Wang10Eiji Nishibori11Tomohiro Sato12Xun Shi13Guangxi Key Laboratory of Information Materials, Engineering Research Center of Electronic Information Materials and Devices, Ministry of Education, Guilin University of Electronic TechnologyGuangxi Key Laboratory of Information Materials, Engineering Research Center of Electronic Information Materials and Devices, Ministry of Education, Guilin University of Electronic TechnologyGuangxi Novel Battery Materials Research Center of Engineering Technology, School of Physical Science and Technology, Guangxi UniversityGuangxi Key Laboratory of Information Materials, Engineering Research Center of Electronic Information Materials and Devices, Ministry of Education, Guilin University of Electronic TechnologyState Key Laboratory of High Performance Ceramics and Superfine Microstructure, Shanghai Institute of Ceramics, Chinese Academy of SciencesState Key Laboratory of High Performance Ceramics and Superfine Microstructure, Shanghai Institute of Ceramics, Chinese Academy of SciencesGuangxi Novel Battery Materials Research Center of Engineering Technology, School of Physical Science and Technology, Guangxi UniversityGuangxi Novel Battery Materials Research Center of Engineering Technology, School of Physical Science and Technology, Guangxi UniversityGuangxi Key Laboratory of Information Materials, Engineering Research Center of Electronic Information Materials and Devices, Ministry of Education, Guilin University of Electronic TechnologyGuangxi Key Laboratory of Information Materials, Engineering Research Center of Electronic Information Materials and Devices, Ministry of Education, Guilin University of Electronic TechnologyGuangxi Novel Battery Materials Research Center of Engineering Technology, School of Physical Science and Technology, Guangxi UniversityDepartment of Physics, Faculty of Pure and Applied Science, Tsukuba Research Center for Energy Materials Science (TREMS), Hydrogen Boride Research Center (HBRC), Tsukuba Institute for Advanced Research (TIAR), University of TsukubaSinter Land INC.State Key Laboratory of High Performance Ceramics and Superfine Microstructure, Shanghai Institute of Ceramics, Chinese Academy of SciencesAbstract β-Ag2Se holds a great promise for wearable thermoelectric generators due to its good mechanical properties and biocompatibility. However, optimizing its power factor through alterations in the Ag/Se stoichiometric ratio or incorporating secondary phases has reached the limitation. This work adopts a liquid-like sintering strategy, namely employing the migration and precipitation of silver ions from metallic silver to the silver selenide during the spark plasma sintering process to construct significantly sized and coherent Ag-rich nanoprecipitates within flexible Ag/β-Ag2Se composite films, thereby achieving an unprecedented power factor exceeding 4000 μWm−1K−2 at 303 K. The Ag-rich nanoprecipitates play a crucial role in elevating the carrier concentration, enhancing the density-of-states effective mass, and mitigating carrier scattering caused by phase interfaces and acoustic phonons. The generator containing 5 pieces of optimal films shows an normalized output power density of 10.89 μWcm−1K−2 under a temperature difference of 26.0 K. This study strongly suggests that the creation of Ag-rich nanoprecipitates is an effective avenue for improving the electrical performance of β-Ag2Se-based thermoelectric materials.https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-61079-4 |
| spellingShingle | Jie Gao Jiahui Li Lei Miao Lida Jia Pengfei Qiu Tingwei Yin Sijing Zhu Xinyu Yang Jia-Chen Guo Jun-Liang Chen Xiaoyang Wang Eiji Nishibori Tomohiro Sato Xun Shi Coherent Ag-rich nanoprecipitates/β-Ag2Se flexible film with unprecedented thermoelectric performance by liquid-like sintering Nature Communications |
| title | Coherent Ag-rich nanoprecipitates/β-Ag2Se flexible film with unprecedented thermoelectric performance by liquid-like sintering |
| title_full | Coherent Ag-rich nanoprecipitates/β-Ag2Se flexible film with unprecedented thermoelectric performance by liquid-like sintering |
| title_fullStr | Coherent Ag-rich nanoprecipitates/β-Ag2Se flexible film with unprecedented thermoelectric performance by liquid-like sintering |
| title_full_unstemmed | Coherent Ag-rich nanoprecipitates/β-Ag2Se flexible film with unprecedented thermoelectric performance by liquid-like sintering |
| title_short | Coherent Ag-rich nanoprecipitates/β-Ag2Se flexible film with unprecedented thermoelectric performance by liquid-like sintering |
| title_sort | coherent ag rich nanoprecipitates β ag2se flexible film with unprecedented thermoelectric performance by liquid like sintering |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-61079-4 |
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