Hydrothermal synthesis and thermoelectric transport properties of PbTe nanocubes

• PbTe nanocubes were synthesized via hydrothermal method without any organic solvent and surfactant.
• Thermoelectric properties of nanostructured bulk PbTe were investigated.
• Large Seebeck coefficients have been achieved due to energy filtering effect.
• Low thermal conductivity is obtained by phonon scattering.

A facile hydrothermal route for the synthesis of PbTe nanocubes without any organic solvent and surfactant has been developed. The sizes of as-prepared nanocubes are around 80–100 nm. The thermoelectric properties of nanostructured bulk PbTe by hot-pressing were investigated. Large Seebeck coefficient, while low electrical conductivity have been found, which are attributed to the energy filtering effect. In addition, lower thermal conductivity is obtained due to strong phonon scattering at the grain boundaries. The minimum thermal conductivity of 0.621 W m−1 K−1 and the highest figure of merit ZT 0.78 at 450 K of the nanostructured bulk PbTe can be achieved.

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