| Abstract Scope |
Thermoelectric devices possess enormous potential to reshape the global energy landscape by converting waste heat into electricity, yet their commercial implementation has been limited by their high cost-to-output power ratio. No single “champion” thermoelectric material exists due to a broad range of material-dependent thermal and electrical property optimization challenges. While nanostructuring provided a general design paradigm for reducing thermal conductivities, there exists no analogous strategy for homogeneous, precise doping of materials. Here, we demonstrate an interface-engineering approach with an isoelectronic dopant that harnesses the large chemically accessible surface area of nanomaterials to modify the host band structure yielding massive, finely-controlled, and stable changes in the Seebeck coefficient, switching a prototypical p-type thermoelectric material, tellurium, into a robust n-type material. These remodeled, n-type nanowires display extremely high power factors that are orders of magnitude higher than their bulk p-type counterparts with power factors and ZTs surpassing bulk tellurium. |