Copper Sulfide-Zinc Sulfide Janus Nanoparticles and Their Seebeck Characteristics for Sustainable Thermoelectric Materials

A heterostructured copper sulfide-zinc sulfide nanocomposite is explored as a new class of low temperature and sustainable thermoelectric materials. The nanoparticles are created through a wet chemical synthetic technique and display a remarkable Janus structure. These nanoparticles are processed as building blocks by molecular linking with short alkyl chain ligands to enhance their electrical conductivity. The nanomaterials are pressed into a pellet and subjected to subsequent thermal annealing to remove volatiles and enhance particle contacts through sintering. The resulting nanocomposite materials were characterized to assess the thermoelectric characteristics, revealing P-type conductivity.