Effect of morphology and microstructure on the thermal conductivity of chalcogenide thermoelectric materials

In this thesis, I have investigated the structure and morphology of some typical thermoelectric materials and their effects on the performance of these materials. In our world, the energy crisis and environmental pollution are two major problems that people need to address. Thermoelectric materials have received a lot of attention in this respect due to their ability to convert directly between heat and electricity while doing so in a pollution-free, highly reliable and maintenance-free manner. The preparation methods in the thesis that involve quenching from high temperature are able not only to stabilize phases that appear at high-temperature in the phase diagram but also to obtain complex microstructures. The macroscopic properties of substances are expressed by microscopic atoms, and it is the laws of the microscopic physical world that are the essential laws of the macroscopic world. Elucidating the microstructure and morphology of materials is therefore of great importance to understand the macroscopic properties of materials.