Rational structure design and manipulation advance SnSe thermoelectrics

Thermoelectrics can directly harvest electricity from waste heat through the Seebeck effect, therefore it has been regarded as an eco-friendly and sustainable solution to alleviate the pressure from fossil fuel consumption and environmental pollution. Rational structural manipulation is critical to improving the thermoelectric performance of materials, and a timely review is required to summarize the recent progress on the novel structural design for thermoelectrics. In this review, taking SnSe as a typical example and combined with other thermoelectric materials, we summarize recent advances in the rational structural manipulation for thermoelectric materials, including point defects, dislocations, boundaries, nanoinclusions, and nanopores. The inherent links between syntheses, characterizations, and thermoelectric properties by tailoring the structures are established. In addition, we discuss the development of nanoscale thermoelectric materials and their potential for applying to flexible thermoelectric devices. This review can guide the design of high-performance thermoelectric materials