Bi2Te3 (Bismuth telluride)

Bismuth telluride is a narrow gap layered semiconductor with a trigonal unit cell. The valence and conduction band structure can be described as a many-ellipsoidal model with 6 constant-energy ellipsoids that are centered on the reflection planes. Bi₂Te₃ cleaves easily along the trigonal axis due to Van der Waals bonding between neighboring tellurium atoms. Due to this, bismuth telluride based material that are used for power generation or cooling applications must be polycrystalline. Furthermore, the Seebeck coefficient of bulk Bi₂Te₃ becomes compensated around room temperature, forcing the materials used in power generation devices to be an alloy of bismuth, antimony, tellurium, and selenium.

Recently, researchers have attempted to improve the efficiency of Bi₂Te₃ based materials by creating structures where one or more dimensions are reduced, such as nanowires or thin films. In one such instance n-type bismuth telluride was shown to have an improved Seebeck coefficient (voltage per unit temperature difference) of −287 μV/K at 54 Celsius, However, one must realize that Seebeck Coefficient and electrical conductivity have a tradeoff; a higher Seebeck coefficient results in decreased carrier concentration and decreased electrical conductivity.