Aqueous chemical synthesis of nanoscale Bi2(Te,Se)3 and (Bi,Sb)2Te3 thermoelectric compounds

We introduce a simple aqueous chemical route for the synthesis of nanoscale Bi2Te2.7Se0.3 and Bi0.5Sb1.5Te3 solid solution thermoelectric compounds in this article. The method adapted is based on the reaction between BiCl3, Te and Se/Sb in an alkaline condition at 80 °C and under the normal atmospheric pressure without surfactant agent. The microstructures of the synthesized products are characterized by XRD and SEM. The result shows that the crystals are of high purity. This one-step, easy to control synthetic technique is utilized at low temperature and under normal atmospheric pressure, which opens up a prospect of its application in industry.