Enhanced Thermoelectric Performance of Cu(2)SnSe(3)-Based Composites Incorporated with Nano-Fullerene

In this study, nano-sized fullerene C(60) powder was sufficiently mixed with Cu(2)SnSe(3) powder by ball milling method, and the C(60)/Cu(2)SnSe(3) composites were prepared by spark plasma sintering technology. The fullerene C(60) distributed uniformly in the form of clusters, and the average cluster size was less than 1 μm. With increasing C(60) content, the electrical conductivity of C(60)/Cu(2)SnSe(3) composites decreased, while the Seebeck coefficient was enhanced. The thermal conductivity of composites decreased significantly, which resulted from the phonon scattering by the C(60) clusters located on the grain boundaries of the Cu(2)SnSe(3) matrix. The highest figure of merit ZT of 0.38 was achieved at 700 K for 0.8% C(60)/Cu(2)SnSe(3) composite.