Enhancement in thermoelectric performance of electrochemically deposited platinum-bismuth telluride nanocomposite

The study of the thermoelectric performance of electrodeposited Pt nanoparticles-bismuth telluride nanocomposites (Pt/Bi₂Te₃) film is presented in this paper. An electrolyte solution containing nitric acid and bismuth-telluride ions was mixed with various concentrations of Pt nanoparticles. 1.0 wt% to 1.9 wt% of Pt nanoparticles in the composites have been successfully synthesized and their thermoelectric performances were investigated. It is found that at 1.9% of Pt nanoparticles weight percentage in the Bi₂Te₃ matrix, the power factor increased to 1.8 × 10⁻³ W m⁻¹ K⁻² which is more than twice higher than that of an electrodeposited pure Bi₂Te₃ film. Meanwhile, the evaluation on thermal conductivity of the composite shows promising improvement, which is more than 40% reduction as compared to the Bi₂Te₃ film. As a result, a higher ZT value of 0.61 is obtained for the Pt (1.9 wt%)/Bi₂Te₃ film which is approximately more than triple of ZT of the electrodeposited Bi₂Te₃ film at room temperature.