Effect of Surfactant Addition on Bi2Te3 Nanostructures Synthesized by Hydrothermal Method

In the present work, we have prepared Bi₂Te₃ nanostructures with different morphologies such as nano-spherical, nanoplates and nanoflakes obtained using various surfactant additions (EG, PVP, and EDTA) by a hydrothermal method. The shape of the nanoparticles can be controlled by addition of surfactants. The samples were characterized by x-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). It is found that the minority BiOCl phase disappears after maintained pH at 10 with EG as surfactant. SEM bulk microstructure reveals that the sample consists of fine and coarse grains. Temperature dependence of thermoelectric properties of the nanostructured bulk sample was investigated in the range of 300-450K. The presence of nanograins in the bulk sample exhibits a reduction of thermal conductivity and less effect on electrical conductivity. As a result, a figure of merit of the sintered bulk sample reached 0.2 at 400 K. A maximum micro Vickers hardness of 102 Hv was obtained for the nanostructured sample, which was higher than the other reported results.