Effect of hot-press treatment on electrochemically deposited antimony telluride film

Antimony telluride thin film electrochemically deposited in a triethanol based alkaline electrolyte features amorphous structure, high electrical resistance, as well as fine morphology, minor impurity incorporation and anti-corrosivity. To further improve film thermoelectric performance, this film was subjected to hot-uniaxial-press (HUP) treatment at 170–250 °C. HUP treated films revealed crystallized structures, and exhibited 2–3 orders of magnitude improvement of electrical conductance. The [TeO32−]/[SbO2−] of the deposition electrolyte was utilized to fine tune film composition and thermal electrical performance. Ni diffusion from the substrate into the film was also studied, and it can be reduced by using lower temperature and shorter time of HUP treatment. Film Seebeck coefficient and power factor reached 138 μV/K and 337 μW/K2∙m, respectively, at elaborated deposition and HUP conditions.