Compositional disorder and its effect on the thermoelectric performance of Zn 3 P 2 nanowire–copper nanoparticle composites

Recent studies indicated that nanowire format of materials is ideal for enhancing the thermoelectric performance of materials. Most of these studies were performed using individual nanowires as the test elements. It is not currently clear whether bulk assemblies of nanowires replicate this enhanced thermoelectric performance of individual nanowires. Therefore, it is imperative to understand whether enhanced thermoelectric performance exhibited by individual nanowires can be extended to bulk assemblies of nanowires. It is also imperative to know whether the addition of metal nanoparticle to semiconductor nanowires can be employed for enhancing their thermoelectric performance further. Specifically, it is important to understand the effect of microstructure and composition on the thermoelectric performance on bulk compound semiconductor nanowire–metal nanoparticle composites. In this study, bulk composites composed of mixtures of copper nanoparticles with either unfunctionalized or...

Lance Brockway, Venkata Vasiraju and Sreeram Vaddiraju

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