Interface-driven energy filtering effect and phonon scattering in n-type Ag2Se/polyaniline nanocomposites for enhanced thermoelectric performance

R. Santhosh; R. Abinaya; S. Harish; J. Archana; S. Ponnusamy; H. Ikeda; M. Navaneethan

doi:10.1007/s42823-025-00943-1

Interface-driven energy filtering effect and phonon scattering in n-type Ag2Se/polyaniline nanocomposites for enhanced thermoelectric performance

Carbon Letters
Abbr : Carbon Lett.
2025, 35(6), pp.2651~2664
DOI : 10.1007/s42823-025-00943-1
Publisher : Korean Carbon Society
Research Area : Natural Science > Natural Science General > Other Natural Sciences General
Received : January 28, 2025
Accepted : June 29, 2025
Published : December 11, 2025

R. Santhosh ¹, R. Abinaya ¹, S. Harish ¹, J. Archana ¹, S. Ponnusamy ¹, H. Ikeda ², M. Navaneethan ³

¹SRM Institute of Science and Technology
²Shizuoka University
³독립연구자

Accredited

ABSTRACT

The mixed-ion electron conductor, Ag₂Se, has shown strong potential as a thermoelectric material operating near room temperature. In this study, we demonstrate that the incorporation of polyaniline (PANI) into Ag₂Se forms Ag₂Se/PANI nanocomposites with significantly enhanced thermoelectric performances. Ag₂Se was synthesized using a hydrothermal method followed by hot pressing to obtain dense composite pellets. The novelty of this work lies in the systematic tuning of the PANI content and its dual role in enhancing electrical transport while suppressing lattice thermal conductivity. Microstructural analysis reveals that PANI-induced defects, such as dislocations and point defects, effectively scatter phonons at multiple scales, resulting in a remarkably low lattice thermal conductivity (κₗ ≈ 0.08 Wm⁻1 K⁻1) at 393 K. Simultaneously, PANI improves carrier mobility by modifying the Coulomb potential at grain boundaries, reducing interfacial energy barriers. These effects lead to an improved power factor of 2028 μWm⁻1 K⁻2 and a peak figure of merit (zT ≈ 0.67) at 393 K for the 0.5 wt% PANI sample. This study introduces a novel polymer-assisted interface engineering approach to improve the thermoelectric performance of Ag₂Se-based materials.

KEYWORDS

Thermoelectric, Silver selenide, Conductive polyaniline, Phonon scattering, Energy filtering

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Carbon Letters 2025 KCI Impact Factor : 0.73 KCI-WoS Impact Factor : 6.26

Interface-driven energy filtering effect and phonon scattering in n-type Ag2Se/polyaniline nanocomposites for enhanced thermoelectric performance

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Citation status

This is the result of checking the information with the same ISSN, publication year, volume, and start page between the WoS and the KCI journals. (as of 2026-07-09)

Total Citation Counts(KCI+WOS) (1) This is the number of times that the duplicate count has been removed by comparing the citation list of WoS and KCI.

* References for papers published after 2025 are currently being built.

Carbon Letters 2025 KCI Impact Factor : 0.73 KCI-WoS Impact Factor : 6.26

Interface-driven energy filtering effect and phonon scattering in n-type Ag2Se/polyaniline nanocomposites for enhanced thermoelectric performance

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Total Citation Counts(KCI+WOS) (1) This is the number of times that the duplicate count has been removed by comparing the citation list of WoS and KCI.

REFERENCES (82) * References for papers published after 2025 are currently being built.

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