Professor Yue Chen of the Department of Mechanical Engineering and his collaborators worked on the research for the topic “Chemical bonding manipulation unlocks high performance ionic-bonded thermoelectrics”. The research findings were recently published in Nature Communications on March 25, 2026.

Details of the publication:

Chemical bonding manipulation unlocks high performance ionic-bonded thermoelectrics

Haiqi Li, Shuang Lyu, Xiaofang Li, Yuanhang Xia, Kejia Liu, Yuxin Sun, Minglong Wang, Jinxuan Cheng, Wenxuan Wang, Dongyi Shen, Huajian Wu, Chen Chen, Qian Zhang, and Yue Chen, article in Nature Communications

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-026-70922-1

Summary

Developing a strategy to enhance the thermoelectric performance of ionic semiconductors is challenging because of the pronounced electron localization inherent to the bonding nature. Herein, we demonstrate a bond manipulation approach in ionic-bonded compound MnTe achieved by the introduction of diverse atomic species, which effectively delocalizes electrons and modifies phase composition, leading to a comprehensive optimization in thermoelectric performance. As a result, we realize a peak zT value of ~1.6 at 773 K and an average zT value of ~0.9 from 300 K to 773 K. In addition, this chemical bonding engineering induces bond softening and forms multiscale hierarchical structures, resulting in a significant reduction in lattice thermal conductivity. Consequently, the segmented module fabricated from this p-type MnTe-based material achieves a thermoelectric conversion efficiency of 11% at a temperature difference ∆T = 473 K. Our findings establish bond engineering as an effective paradigm for enhancing the thermoelectric performance of ionic compounds.