Phonon Coupled Scattering Caused Ultralow Lattice Thermal Conductivity and Its Role in The Remarkable Thermoelectric Performance of Newly Predicted SiS2 and SiSe2 monolayers

Abstract: For high efficiency thermoelectric power conversion not only improvement of materials properties but also prediction and synthesis of new thermoelectric materials is needed. Here we have carried out a systematic investigation on thermoelectric performance of newly predicted two dimensional (2D) semiconducting SiS2 and SiSe2 monolayers of group IVA-VIA family using density functional theory (DFT) and Boltzmann transport equation (BTE). Our computed values of lattice thermal conductivity (kph) are ultralow which result very high thermoelectric figure of merit (ZT) value of 0.78 (0.80) at 500K in SiS2 (SiSe2) monolayer. The ultralow values of kph are attributed to phonon-phonon coupling of acoustic and low frequency optical branches which leads to larger scattering, low group velocity, smaller mean free path and shorter lifetime of phonons. It is also found from our investigation that p-type doping is more effective than n-type doping to get optimal power factor (PF) and ZT. Our theoretical investigation suggests that newly predicted semiconducting SiS2 and SiSe2 monolayers can be very promising thermoelectric materials for fabrication of high efficiency thermoelectric power generator to convert wastage heat into electricity.