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Improvement of Thermoelectric Properties Via Combination of Nanostructurization and Elemental Do**

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Abstract

Since the nanostructure was introduced to modify thermoelectric properties in 1993, many efforts have been devoted to fabricate nanostructures and investigate the electrical and thermal transports in nanostructured materials. Compared with low-dimensional materials, nanocomposites not only exhibit nanofeatures but also can be fabricated in large quantities and compatible with practical thermoelectric devices in scale and shape. This article reviews the background of nanocomposites, then the Mg2(Si0.4Sn0.6)Bi x solid solutions. High-manganese silicides with MnSi (HMS–MnSi), and In4−x Gd x Se3 compounds are selected as examples to illustrate the combination effect of nanostructure and dopants on thermoelectric properties. In situ nanostructures successfully formed during the rapid cooling and spark-plasma sintering processing and elementaldo** were achieved via melting processing. Electrical conductivities were enhanced as a result of the increased carrier concentration or carrier mobility by elemental do**. Meanwhile, thermal conductivities decreased as a result of the strong phonon scattering intensified by nanostructures. The ZTs for the specimens with optimal do** ratio were enhanced in these three types of thermoelectric materials.

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Acknowledgements

The authors greatly appreciate the financial support of this work from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 50801002, 50271001), the Prior Sci-Tech Programs of Overseas Chinese Talents Funds of Bei**g Municipal Bureau of Personnel (Q2009012200801), and Bei**g Municipal Education Commission and the Basic and Advanced Technology Research Project of Henan Province (Grant No. 132300410071).

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  1. College of Materials Science and Engineering, Bei**g University of Technology, Bei**g, 100124, People’s Republic of China

    Ran Zhao, Fu Guo, Yutian Shu, **n Zhang, Qingmei Lu & Jiuxing Zhang

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  1. Ran Zhao
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Correspondence to Fu Guo.

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Fig. S1

Backscattered electron image of specimen MnSi1.75 + 9 wt.% MnSi (TIFF 1106 kb)

Fig. S2

XRD patterns for specimens In4−x Gd x Se3 (x = 0, 0.05, and 0.10) after SPS (TIFF 625 kb)

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Zhao, R., Guo, F., Shu, Y. et al. Improvement of Thermoelectric Properties Via Combination of Nanostructurization and Elemental Do**. JOM 66, 2298–2308 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11837-014-1148-z

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