A high throughput search of efficient thermoelectric half-Heusler compounds

TL;DR

This study uses high throughput density functional theory calculations to identify new pathways for improving thermoelectric performance in half-Heusler compounds through elemental substitution, revealing strategies to enhance the figure of merit.

Contribution

The paper introduces a high throughput computational approach to systematically explore elemental substitutions in half-Heusler compounds for thermoelectric enhancement, providing new insights and guidelines.

Findings

50% X and Z site substitutions marginally increase power factor.

Substitutions lead to ~24% increase in figure of merit due to reduced lattice thermal conductivity.

Y site substitution does not enhance power factor due to band degeneracy breaking.

Abstract

Half-Heusler compounds have emerged as promising thermoelectric materials that offer huge compositional space to tune their thermoelectric performance. A class of stable half Heusler compounds formed from elements of three specific groups in the periodic table viz. X$_{p}$X$'_{1-p}$Y$_{q}$Y$'_{1-q}$Z$_{r}$Z$'_{1-r}$ (with X, X$'$= Ti, Zr, Hf, Y, Y$'$ = Ni, Pd, Pt and Z, Z$'$ = Ge, Sn, Pb and p, q, r = 0, 0.25, 0.75 and 1) via various stoichiometric isoelectronic elemental substitution at the X, Y and Z sites respectively is investigated. Intelligent filters are employed at each step of our high throughput density functional theory calculations to filter compounds with improved figure of merit. While confirming several known results, the calculations also reveal unknown pathways to improve the thermoelectric performance of the compound class. The 50% X as well as Z site substitution of the parent Heusler individually are found to marginally enhance the power factor for both the $p$- and $n$-type doping, while leading to considerable enhancement in the figure of merit (by $\sim$24 %) specifically due to lowering of the lattice thermal conductivity because of increase in lattice disorder in approximately the same cell volume. Furthermore, the present study confirms the experimental scenario that Y site substitution does not lead to enhancement of the powerfactor because of the breaking of band degeneracies at the high symmetry points. This work will serve as a consolidated cost effective guideline for experimentalist working with this compound class on enhancing the powerfactor and figure of merit of the compositions.