Effect of Aluminum (Al) Concentration on the Thermoelectric Performance of Zinc Aluminum Selenium (ZnAlSe) Alloy

Abstract

In this manuscript, we have studied the effect of Al concentration on the thermoelectric performance of ZnAlSe alloy. ZnAlSe alloy with different concentrations of Al (0%, 1%, 2%, 3%, and 4%) were synthesized by simple solid-state reaction method. Seebeck data suggested an improvement in Seebeck coefficient value from 38 to 99 μV/°C with the increase of Al atom concentration which leads to a higher power factor of 4.2 × 10−4 Wm−1 K−2. This improvement in Seebeck coefficient and power factor is related to the enhancement in mobility of the carriers by the degradation of the metallic phases with the addition of Al atoms. The verification of metallic phases and crystal degradation is confirmed by X-Ray diffraction (XRD). Some additional measurements such Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) and Raman spectroscopy were also performed to strengthen our argument. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images shows the spherically shaped morphology.