Articles & Issues
- Language
- English
- Conflict of Interest
- In relation to this article, we declare that there is no conflict of interest.
- Publication history
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Received April 16, 2025
Revised July 18, 2025
Accepted August 1, 2025
Available online December 25, 2025
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This is an Open-Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/bync/3.0) which permits
unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
All issues
Thermal Confinement and Filtering Effect of SnSe by Insertion of Atomic‑Layer‑Deposited ZnO Interfacial Layer
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11814-025-00540-y
Abstract
SnSe is a promising thermoelectric material with excellent performance, but its practical use is limited by poor mechanical
properties and challenges in mass production. Improving polycrystalline SnSe has been the focus, with grain boundary
engineering via atomic layer deposition (ALD) emerging as an effective approach. ALD introduces interfacial layers that
reduce thermal conductivity through phonon scattering and enhance the Seebeck coefficient via energy-filtering effects. In
this study, ZnO thin films were uniformly deposited on SnSe powders using ALD, and their microstructure and chemical
properties were analyzed. Thermoelectric evaluations showed a 45% improvement in the figure of merit for ZnO-coated
SnSe pellets. Transmission electron microscopy revealed that the thickness and crystallinity of the ZnO film play a critical
role in enhancing thermoelectric performance, highlighting the importance of interfacial engineering for optimizing SnSebased
thermoelectric materials.
