Galvanic exchange reaction involving Te nanowires and Ag ions for n-type Te/Ag2Te thermoelectric nanofilms

One-dimensional silver telluride nanowires (NWs) as potential thermoelectric materials have been studied extensively. At present, most of the efforts are focused on p-type silver telluride, while limited works have been achieved on the preparation of n-type silver telluride. Herein, we prepared n-type Te/Ag2Te NWs by galvanic exchange reaction and fabricated a nanofilm. As a simple and cost-effective method, galvanic exchange reaction was employed to prepare n-type Te/Ag2Te NWs with obtained Seebeck coefficient of − 93.98 μV K−1. The nanostructure and chemical composition as well as structural phase transition of as-prepared n-type Te/Ag2Te NWs were characterized and discussed. Besides, the thermoelectric thin film device consisting of n-type Te/Ag2Te nanofilms and p-type Ag-doped Te nanofilms obtained by one-step hydrothermal method was assembled and exhibited accessible output voltage as 65 mV at the 75 K temperature difference, which may provide the fundament for the development of inorganic thermoelectric nanofilm device.