T graphene, a two-dimensional carbon allotrope with tetrarings, is investigated by first-principles calculations. We demonstrate that buckled T graphene has Dirac-like fermions and a high Fermi velocity similar to graphene even though it has nonequivalent bonds and possesses no hexagonal honeycomb structure. New features of the linear dispersions that are different from graphene are revealed. $\pi${} and $\pi${}* bands and the two comprising sublattices are the key factors for the emergence of Dirac-like fermions. T graphene and its two types of nanoribbon are expected to possess additional properties over graphene due to its different band structure.

The efficient conversion between thermal and electrical energy by means of durable, silent and scalable solid-state thermoelectric devices has been a long standing goal. While nanocrystalline materials have already led to substantially higher thermoelectric efficiencies, further improvements are expected to arise from precise chemical engineering of nanoscale building blocks and interfaces. Here we present a simple and versatile bottom–up strategy based on the assembly of colloidal nanocrystals to produce consolidated yet nanostructured thermoelectric materials. In the case study on the PbS–Ag system, Ag nanodomains not only contribute to block phonon propagation, but also provide electrons to the PbS host semiconductor and reduce the PbS intergrain energy barriers for charge transport. Thus, PbS–Ag nanocomposites exhibit reduced thermal conductivities and higher charge carrier concentrations and mobilities than PbS nanomaterial. Such improvements of the material transport properties provide thermoelectric figures of merit up to 1.7 at 850 K.

The conversion of thermal energy to electricity and vice versa by means of solid state thermoelectric devices is extremely appealing. However, its cost-effectiveness is seriously hampered by the relatively high production cost and low efficiency of current thermoelectric materials and devices. To overcome present challenges and enable a successful deployment of thermoelectric systems in their wide application range, materials with significantly improved performance need to be developed. Nanostructuration can help in several ways to reach the very particular group of properties required to achieve high thermoelectric performances. Nanodomains inserted within a crystalline matrix can provide large charge carrier concentrations without strongly influencing their mobility, thus allowing to reach very high electrical conductivities. Nanostructured materials contain numerous grain boundaries that efficiently scatter mid- and long-wavelength phonons thus reducing the thermal conductivity. Furthermore, nanocrystalline domains can enhance the Seebeck coefficient by modifying the density of states and/or providing type- and energy-dependent charge carrier scattering. All these advantages can only be reached when engineering a complex type of material, nanocomposites, with exquisite control over structural and chemical parameters at multiple length scales. Since current conventional nanomaterial production technologies lack such level of control, alternative strategies need to be developed and adjusted to the specifics of the field. A particularly suitable approach to produce nanocomposites with unique level of control over their structural and compositional parameters is their bottom-up engineering from solution-processed nanoparticles. In this work, we review the state-of-the-art of this technology applied to the thermoelectric field, including the synthesis of nanoparticles of suitable materials with precisely engineered composition and surface chemistry, their combination and consolidation into nanostructured materials, the strategies to electronically dope such materials and the attempts to fabricate thermoelectric devices using nanoparticle-based nanopowders and inks.

Defect-induced magnetism is firstly observed in neutron irradiated SiC single crystals. We demonstrated that the intentionally created defects dominated by divacancies (VSiVC) are responsible for the observed magnetism. First-principles calculations revealed that defect states favor the formation of local moments and the extended tails of defect wave functions make long-range spin couplings possible. Our results confirm the existence of defect-induced magnetism, implying the possibility of tuning the magnetism of wide band-gap semiconductors by defect engineering.

In the present work, we demonstrate crystallographically textured n-type Bi2Te3-xSex nanomaterials with exceptional thermoelectric (TE) figures of merit produced by consolidating disk-shaped Bi2Te3-xSex colloidal nanocrystals (NCs). Crystallographic texture was achieved by hot pressing the asymmetric NCs in the presence of an excess of tellurium. During the hot press, tellurium acted both as lubricant to facilitate the rotation of NCs lying close to normal to the pressure axis and as solvent to dissolve the NCs approximately aligned with the pressing direction, which afterward recrystallize with a preferential orientation. NC-based Bi2Te3-xSex nanomaterials showed very high electrical conductivities associated to large charge carrier concentrations, n. We hypothesize that such large n resulted from the presence of an excess of tellurium during processing, which introduced a high density of donor TiBi antisites. Additionally, the presence in between grains of traces of elemental Te, a narrow band gap semiconductor with a work function well below Bi2Te3-xSex, might further contribute to increase n through spillover of electrons, while at the same time blocking phonon propagation and hole transport through the nanomaterial. NC-based Bi2Te3-xSex nanomaterials were characterized by very low thermal conductivities in the pressing direction, which resulted in ZT values up to 1.31 at 438 K in this direction. This corresponds to a ca. 40 % ZT enhancement from commercial ingots. Additionally, high ZT values were extended over wider temperature ranges due to reduced bipolar contribution to the Seebeck coefficient and the thermal conductivity. Average ZT values up to 1.15 over a wide temperature range, 320 K to 500 K, were measured, which corresponds to a ca. 50 % increase over commercial materials in the same temperature range. Contrary to most previous works, highest ZT values were obtained in the pressing direction, corresponding to the c crystallographic axis, due to the predominance of the thermal conductivity reduction over the electrical conductivity difference when comparing the two crystal directions. KEYWORDS: Bi2Te3-xSex, nanocrystal, colloid, crystallographic texture, liquid phase sintering, thermoelectricity.