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Research & Reviews : Journal of Physics Original Research

Nanostructure-Induced Thermoelectric Enhancement in Bi2Te3 Nanorod Design, Analysis, and Performance Evaluation

  1. Anish Kumar Mechanical engineering department, BIT Sindri, Dhanbad

Abstract

Thermoelectric materials capable of efficient energy conversion near room temperature are critical for waste heat recovery applications. In this work, solution-grown Bi2Te3 nanorods were synthesized via a trioctylphosphine-assisted thermal decomposition route, and the influence of surfactant-induced nanostructuring on their thermoelectric properties was systematically investigated. Structural analysis using X-ray diffraction and Rietveld refinement confirmed the formation of rhombohedral Bi2Te3 with the emergence of Bi2Te3–BiTe nanocomposites at higher surfactant concentrations. Electron microscopy revealed one-dimensional nanorods with crystallite sizes tunable down to ~40 nm. Raman spectroscopy showed the appearance of IR-active A1u modes, indicating a ligand-induced breakdown of inversion symmetry due to the formation of sub-quintuple layers along the nanorod axis. Thermoelectric measurements demonstrated n-type conduction with a significant enhancement in Seebeck coefficient attributed to carrier energy filtering at grain boundaries and quantum confinement effects. An optimized surfactant concentration yielded a maximum power factor of 348.7 μW m−1 K−2 at 300 K, exceeding values reported for comparable solution-processed Bi2Te3 systems. The combined effects of reduced crystallite size, controlled barrier height, and nanocomposite formation establish

surfactant-engineered Bi2Te3 nanorods as promising candidates for high-performance near-room- temperature thermoelectric applications

Keywords

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