Enhanced Thermoelectric Efficiency via Orthogonal Electrical and Thermal Conductances in Phosphorene

Abstract

Thermoelectric devices that utilize the Seebeck effect convert heat flow into electrical energy and are highly desirable for the development of portable, solid state, passively-powered electronic systems. The conversion efficiencies of such devices are quantified by the dimensionless thermoelectric figure of merit (ZT), which is proportional to the ratio of a device's electrical conductance to its thermal conductance. High ZT (>2) has been achieved in materials via all-scale hierarchical architecturing. This efficiency holds at high temperatures (700K~900K) but quickly diminishes at lower temperatures. In this paper, a recently-fabricated two-dimensional (2D) semiconductor called phosphorene (monolayer black phosphorus) is assessed for its thermoelectric capabilities. First-principles and model calculations reveal that phosphorene possesses spatially-anisotropic electrical and thermal conductances. The prominent electrical and thermal conducting directions are orthogonal to one another, enhancing the ratio of these conductances. As a result, ZT can reach 2.5 (the criterion for commercial deployment) along the armchair direction of phosphorene at T=500K and is greater than 1 even at room temperature given moderate doping (~2 x 10^16 m-2). Ultimately, phosphorene stands out as an environmentally sound thermoelectric material with unprecedented qualities: intrinsically, it is a mechanically flexible material that converts heat energy with high efficiency at low temperatures (~ 300K) - one whose performance does not require any sophisticated engineering techniques.

22 pages with 6 figures

References in corpus (4)

• BoltzTraP. A code for calculating band-structure dependent quantities
• Strain-Engineering Anisotropic Electrical Conductance of Phosphorene and Few-Layer Black Phosphorus
• Thermal Conductivity and Phonon Transport in Suspended Few-Layer Hexagonal Boron Nitride
• Lattice Vibrational Modes and Raman Scattering Spectra of Strained Phosphorene

Cited by in corpus (45)

• 2D materials and van der Waals heterostructures
• Two-Dimensional Material Nanophotonics
• The Renaissance of Black Phosphorus
• Broadband Linear-Dichroic Photodetector in a Black Phosphorus Vertical p-n Junction
• Anisotropic intrinsic lattice thermal conductivity of phosphorene from first principles
• Phosphorene nanoribbon as a promising candidate for thermoelectric applications
• Gate Tunable Quantum Oscillations in Air-Stable and High Mobility Few-Layer Phosphorene Heterostructures
• In Situ Thermal Decomposition of Exfoliated Two-Dimensional Black Phosphorus
• Co-existence of size-dependent and size-independent thermal conductivities in single layer black phosphorus
• Ab initio study of electron-phonon interaction in phosphorene
• Observation of Low-frequency Interlayer Breathing Modes in Few-layer Black Phosphorus
• Thermoelectric power of bulk black-phosphorus
• Low-Symmetry Two-Dimensional Materials for Electronic and Photonic Applications
• Black Phosphorus Nanoelectromechanical Resonators Vibrating at Very High Frequencies
• Manifestation of unexpected semiconducting properties in few-layer orthorhombic arsenene
• Electronic fitness function for screening semiconductors as thermoelectric materials
• Anisotropic Ripple Deformation in Phosphorene
• Topological Protected Dirac Cones in Compressed Bulk Black Phosphorus
• Renormalization of quasiparticle band gap in doped two-dimensional materials from many-body calculations
• Thermoelectric properties of orthorhombic group IV-VI monolayers from the first-principles calculations
• The Optical Properties and Plasmonics of Anisotropic 2-Dimensional Materials
• Thermoelectric terahertz photodetectors based on selenium-doped black phosphorus flakes
• Layered material GeSe and vertical GeSe/MoS2 p-n heterojunctions
• New two-dimensional phase of tin chalcogenides: candidates for high-performance thermoelectric materials
• Thermoelectric transport in monolayer phosphorene
• Transition Metal and Vacancy Defect Complexes in Phosphorene: A Spintronic Perspective
• Thermal Conduction in Single-Layer Black Phosphorus: Highly Anisotropic?
• Atomic-scale imaging of few-layer black phosphorus and its reconstructed edge
• Environmental Effects in Mechanical Properties of Few-layer Black Phosphorus
• Earth-abundant and Non-toxic SiX (X=S, Se) Monolayers as Highly Efficient Thermoelectric Materials
• Mechanical Properties of Phosphorene Nanotubes: A Density Functional Tight-Binding Study
• Electric- and magnetic-field dependence of the electronic and optical properties of phosphorene quantum dots
• Novel polystyrene-based nanocomposites by phosphorene dispersion
• Mechanical Properties and Failure Behavior of Phosphorene with Grain Boundaries
• Strain induced large enhancement of thermoelectric figure-of-merit ($ZT\sim 2$) in transition metal dichalcogenide monolayers ZrX${}_2$ (X= S, Se, Te)
• Tailored nano-electronics and photonics with two-dimensional materials at terahertz frequencies
• The impact of hexagonal boron nitride encapsulation on the structural and vibrational properties of few layer black phosphorus
• Graphether: A Two-Dimensional Oxocarbon as a Direct Wide-Gap Semiconductor with High Mechanical and Electrical Performances
• Eliminating edge electronic and phonon states of phosphorene nanoribbon by unique edge reconstruction
• Thermoelectric effects in topological crystalline insulators
• Charge carrier transport and lifetimes in n-type and p-type phosphorene as 2D device active materials: an ab initio study
• Visible Out-of-plane Polarized Luminescence and Electronic Resonance from Black Phosphorus
• Observation of A${}_g^1$ Raman mode splitting in few layers black phosphorus encapsulated with hexagonal boron nitride
• Anisotropy of the Optical Properties of Pentacene:Black Phosphorus Interfaces
• Line Edge Roughness Effects on the Thermoelectric Properties of Armchair Black Phosphorene Nanoribbons