• Journal of the Korean Vacuum Society
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.215-221
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• 2005

Thermoelectric bismuth telluride thin films were prepared on $SiO_{2}$/Si substrate with co-sputtering of bismuth and tellurium targets. The effects of deposition temperature on surface morphology, crystallinity and electrical transport properties were investigated. Hexagonal crystallites were clearly visible at the surface of films deposited above $290 ^{\circ}C$. Change of dominant phase from rhombohedral $Bi_2Te_3$ to hexagonal BiTe was confirmed with X-ray diffraction analysis. The deviation from stoichiometric composition at high deposition temperature resulted in the change of structural and electrical characteristics. Seebeck coefficients of all samples have negative value, indicating the prepared $Bi_XTe_Y$ films are n-type thermoelectric. Optimum of Seebeck coefficient and power factor were obtained at the deposition temperature of $225 \^{circ}$C (about -55 $\mu$V/K and $3\times10^{-4}$ W/$k^{2}$m, respectively). Deterioration of thermoelectric properties at higher temperature.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.573-576
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• 2004

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.622-629
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• 1988

In order to improve the sensitivity of the wafer type heat flux sensor, some heat flux sensors were manufactured and examined by using thermoelectric semiconductor material (bismuth telluride) whose Seebck coefficient is much larger than those of metallic thermocouple materials. Because the thermoelectric element cannot be bended or welded, a peculiar sensor structure and manufacturing process were designed. As a result, it is revealed that the characteristic sensitivity of the manufactured sensor is about 10 times larger than that of marketed sensor even though there are some troubles in stiffness for reciprocal use. If we make this kind of sensors smaller and thinner, it will be a useful method to measure the local heat flux from the surface of complex configuration.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.32 no.7
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• pp.2207-2211
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• 2011

Colloidal cadmium telluride (CdTe) quantum dots (QDs) and their nanoparticles have been synthesized by one pot sonochemical reactions under multibubble sonoluminescence (MBSL) conditions, which are quite mild and facile compared to other typical high temperature solution-based methods. For a typical reaction, $CdCl_2$ and tellurium powder with hexadecylamine and trioctylphosphine/trioctylphosphineoxide (TOP/TOPO) as a dispersant were sonicated in toluene solvent at 20 KHz and a power of 220W for 5-40 min at 60 $^{\circ}C$. The sizes of CdTe particles, in a very wide size range from 2 nm-30 ${\mu}m$, were controllable by varying the sonicating and thermal heating conditions. The prepared CdTe QDs show different colors from pale yellow to dark brown and corresponding photoluminescence properties due mainly to the quantum confinement effect. The CdTe nanoparticles of about 20 nm in average were found to have band gap of 1.53 eV, which is the most optimally matched band gap to solar spectrum.

• Journal of Energy Engineering
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.184-189
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• 2016

Recently, due to limitation of $CO_2$ gas emission and increase of demand to reduce energy consumption, lots of researches are conducted to harvest wasted heat energy with a thermoelectric module to produce electricity by Seebeck effect. This study was conducted to analyze characteristics of the thermoelectric module to apply for a heat energy harvesting device. Thermoelectric module composed of bismuth telluride was tested with various temperature conditions to analyze thermoelectric behavior of the module. Power generation efficiency of the thermoelectric module for various temperature condition was analysed with both experimental and theoretical methods. From the results, an optimum condition to harvest wasted heat energy with the thermoelectric module more efficiently was proposed.

• Journal of Powder Materials
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.107-112
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• 2010

Carbon-nanotube-embedded bismuth telluride (CNT/$Bi_2Te_3$) matrix composites were fabricated by a powder metallurgy process. Composite powders, whereby 5 vol.% of functionalized CNTs were homogeneously mixed with $Bi_2Te_3$ alloying powders, were successfully synthesized by using high-energy ball milling process. The powders were consolidated into bulk CNT/$Bi_2Te_3$ composites by spark plasma sintering process at $350^{\circ}C$ for 10 min. The fabricated composites showed the uniform mixing and homogeneous dispersion of CNTs in the $Bi_2Te_3$ matrix. Seebeck coefficient of CNT/$Bi_2Te_3$ composites reveals that the composite has n-type semiconducting characteristics with values ranging $-55\;{\mu}V/K$ to $-95\;{\mu}V/K$ with increasing temperature. Furthermore, the significant reduction in thermal conductivity has been clearly observed in the composites. The results showed that CNT addition to thermoelectric materials could be useful method to obtain high thermoelectric performance.

• Proceedings of the Korean Magnestics Society Conference
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• 2013.05a
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• pp.19-20
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• 2013

Thermoelectic properties of the typical thermoelectric host materials, the tellurides and selenides, are known to be noticeably changed by their volume change due to the strain [1]. In the bismuth telluride ($Bi_2Te_3$) crystal, a substitution of rare-earth element by replacing one of the Bi atoms may cause the change of the lattice parameters while remaining the rhombohedral structure of the host material. Using the first-principles approach by the precise full potential linearized augmented plane wave (FLAPW) method [2], we investigated the Ce substitution effect on the thermoelectric transport coefficients for the bismuth telluride, employing Boltzmann's equation in a constant relaxation-time approach fed with the FLAPW wave-functions within the rigid band approximation. Depending on the real process of re-arrangement of atoms in the cell to reach the equilibrium state, $CeBiTe_3$ was found to manifest a metal or a narrow bandgap semiconductor. This feature along with the strong correlation effect originated by the 4f states of Ce affect significantly on the thermoelectric properties. We showed that the position of the strongly localized f-states in energy scale (Fig. 1, f-states are shaded) was found to alter critically the transport properties in this material suggesting an opportunity to improve the thermoelectric efficiency by tuning the external strain which may changing the location of the f-sates.

• Journal of Powder Materials
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• v.18 no.5
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• pp.423-429
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• 2011

Thermoelectric-thick films were fabricated by using a screen printing process of n and p-type bismuth-telluride-based pastes. The screen-printed thick films have approximately 30 ${\mu}m$ in thickness and show rough surfaces yielding an empty gap between an electrode and the thick film. The gap might result in an increase of an electrical resistivity of the fabricated thick-film-type thermoelectric module. In this study, we suggest a conductive metal coating onto the surfaces of the screen-printed paste in order to reduce the contact resistance in the module. As a result, the electrical resistivity of the thermoelectric module having a gold coating layer was significantly reduced up to 30% compared to that of a module without any metal coating. This result indicates that an introduction of conductive metal layers is effective to decrease the contact resistivity of a thick-film-typed thermoelectric module processed by screen printing.

• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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• v.54 no.6
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• pp.518-524
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• 2017

A flexible thermoelectric device using body heat has drawn attention as a power source for wearable devices. In this study, thermoelectric thick films were fabricated by cold pressing method using p-type antimony telluride and n-type bismuth telluride powders in accordance with specific loads. Thermoelectric thick films were denser and improved the electrical and thermoelectric properties while increasing the load of the cold pressing. The thickness of the specimen can be controlled by the amount of material; specimens were approximately 700 um in thickness. Flexible thermoelectric devices were manufactured by using the thermoelectric thick films on PI (Polyimide) substrate. The process is cheap, efficient, easy and scalable. Evaluation of power generation performance and flexibility on the fabricated flexible thermoelectric device was carried out. The flexible thermoelectric device has great flexibility and good performance and can be applied to wearable electronics as a power source.

• Journal of the Korean institute of surface engineering
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• v.50 no.2
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• pp.114-118
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• 2017

Bismuth telluride ($Bi_2Te_3$) and its alloys are well-known thermoelectric materials for ambient temperature applications. In this study, the dissolved Bi-Te precursor solution was used to synthesis metallic $Bi_2Te_3$ powder via ultrasonic spray pyrolysis and reduction process. The droplets of the Bi-Te precursor solution were decomposed to Bi-Te oxide powders by ultrasonic spray pyrolysis. The spherical $Bi_2Te_3$ powders were synthesized by reduction reaction in atmosphere of hydrogen gas at the temperature above $375^{\circ}C$ for 6h. The reduced $Bi_2Te_3$ powders have a mean particle size of $1.5{\mu}m$. The crystal structure of the powder was evaluated by X-Ray diffraction(XRD), and the microstructure with size and shape powders was observed by fieldemission scanning electron microscope(FE-SEM) and transmission electron microscope(TEM).