Aerosol deposition of thermoelectric p-type Bi0.5Sb1.5Te3 and n-type Bi2Te2.7Se0.3 thick films

A new aerosol deposition method was used to fabricate thick Bi-Te based thermoelectric films, such as p-type Bi0.5Sb1.5Te3 and n-type Bi2Te2.7Se0.3. The fabricated films exhibited dense morphologies without any large-scale porosity. Measured films thicknesses of Bi0.5Sb1.5Te3 and Bi2Te2.7Se0.3 were 276 mu m and 557 mu m, respectively. The thermoelectric properties of p-type Bi0.5Sb1.5Te3 and n-type Bi2Te2.7Se0.3 were measured to be 1.18 x 10(4) S/m and 0.7 x 10(4) S/m of electrical conductivities, 230.1 mu V/K and -178 mu V/K of Seebeck coefficients, 0.62 mW/mK(2) and 0.21 mW/mK(2) of power factors, respectively. It was demonstrated that the aerosol deposition is a promising thick film fabrication method for improving the thermoelectric efficiency of the thermoelectric materials.