Preparation and characterization of n-type Bi/sub 2/Te/sub 3/ thermoelectric nanowire array
The figure of merit can be improved greatly through reducing the size of thermoelectric materials into low dimension, and the studies on low dimensional thermoelectric materials have brought widely attention in the world. In our lab, n-type Bi/sub 2/Te/sub 3/ thermoelectric materials with nanowire array structure have been prepared by liquid electrodeposition in the solutions containing Bi/sup +3/ and HTeO/sub 2//sup +/ with alumina porous film as template. The electrochemical measurements show that the co-deposition of elements bismuth and tellurium can take place and the electrodeposition potential of Bi/sup +3/ is more positive than that of HTeO/sub 2//sup +/. ESEM and TEM analyses show that the diameter and length of Bi/sub 2/Te/sub 3/ nanowires are about 50nm and 50 /spl mu/m separately. The Seebeck coefficient /spl alpha/ of the Bi/sub 2/Fe/sub 3/ nanowire array is about - 188 /spl mu/ V/K at 307K.