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Hamawandi et al. Energy Mater. 2025, 5, 500065 Energy Materials
DOI: 10.20517/energymater.2024.204

Article Open Access

Scalable solution chemical synthesis and

comprehensive analysis of Bi Te and Sb Te 3
2
3
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1
Bejan Hamawandi 1,2,* , Parva Parsa , Inga Pudza 2 , Kaspars Pudzs 2 , Alexei Kuzmin 2 , Sedat
Ballikaya 3 , Edmund Welter 4 , Rafal Szukiewicz 5 , Maciej Kuchowicz 5 , Muhammet S. Toprak 1,*
1
Department of Applied Physics, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm SE-106 91, Sweden.
2
Institute of Solid State Physics, University of Latvia, Riga LV-1063, Latvia.
3
Department of Engineering Science, Istanbul University - Cerrahpasa, Avcılar, Istanbul 34320, Turkey.
4
Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron - A Research Centre of the Helmholtz Association, Hamburg D-22607, Germany.
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Institute of Experimental Physics, University of Wroclaw, Wroclaw 50-204, Poland.
*Correspondence to: Prof. Muhammet S. Toprak, Department of Applied Physics, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm
SE-106 91, Sweden. E-mail: toprak@kth.se; Dr. Bejan Hamawandi, Institute of Solid State Physics, University of Latvia, Riga
LV-1063, Latvia. E-mail: bejan.hamawandi@cfi.lu.lv
How to cite this article: Hamawandi, B.; Parsa, P.; Pudza, I.; Pudzs, K.; Kuzmin, A.; Ballikaya, S.; Welter, E.; Szukiewicz, R.;
Kuchowicz, M.; Toprak, M. S. Scalable solution chemical synthesis and comprehensive analysis of Bi Te and Sb Te . Energy
2 3 2 3
Mater. 2025, 5, 500065. https://dx.doi.org/10.20517/energymater.2024.204

Received: 5 Oct 2024 First Decision: 4 Nov 2024 Revised: 20 Nov 2024 Accepted: 28 Nov 2024 Published: 6 Mar 2025
Academic Editor: Chunhui Duan Copy Editor: Fangling Lan Production Editor: Fangling Lan

Abstract
Thermoelectric (TE) materials can directly convert heat into electrical energy. However, they sustain costly
production procedures and batch-to-batch performance variations. Therefore, developing scalable synthetic
techniques for large-scale and reproducible quality TE materials is critical for advancing TE technology. This study
developed a facile, high throughput, solution-chemical synthetic technique. Microwave-assisted thermolysis
process, providing energy-efficient volumetric heating, was used for the synthesis of bismuth and antimony
telluride (Bi Te , Sb Te ). As-made materials were characterized using various techniques, including XRPD, SEM,
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TEM, XAS, and XPS. Detailed investigation of the local atomic structure of the synthesized Bi Te and Sb Te
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powder samples was conducted through synchrotron radiation XAS experiments. Radial distribution functions
around the absorbing atoms were reconstructed using reverse Monte Carlo simulations, and effective force
constants for the nearest and distant coordination shells were subsequently determined. The observed differences
in the effective force constants support high anisotropy of the thermal conductivity in Bi Te and Sb Te in the
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directions along and across the quintuple layers in their crystallographic structure. The as-made materials were
consolidated via Spark Plasma Sintering to evaluate thermal and electrical transport properties. The sintered TE
materials exhibited low thermal conductivity, achieving the highest TE figure-of-merit values of 0.7 (573 K) and 0.9
© The Author(s) 2025. Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0
International License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, sharing,
adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, for any purpose, even commercially, as
long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and
indicate if changes were made.

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