Thermal Transport Properties of Bi2O2Se-Ag2Se Hybrid Structures

The series of Bi2O2Se-Ag2Se composites were synthesized by two step solid state reaction followed by Spark plasma sintering. To optimize their thermal transport properties, different weight percent (wt. %) of silver i-e, 10%, 15% and 20%, was added. The room temperature X-ray diffraction (XRD) and high temperature XRD was used to investigate the crystalline phases,  whereas the morphological study was conducted through FESEM. The thermal transport properties were evaluated from 323 K to 773 K, to study the effect of silver addition on thermal conductivity of all the composite samples. The reduced thermal conductivity of the composite with decreasing Ag contents is might be attributed to increase of the Ag2Se and Bi2O3 nano-inclusions in Bi2O2Se multi-phase-system that increased the phonon scattering regions and reduced the overall thermal conductivity significantly, up to 54 % for BA15SO as compared to that of BA20CO at 473 K.