Effect of the GeTe Defect Monolayer on Thermoelectric Properties

Two-dimensional (2D) GeTe is a popular medium-temperature thermoelectric material, but few studies have focused on strategies for improving its thermoelectric performance. To further investigate the thermoelectric properties of two-dimensional GeTe, different atomic defects are introduced, and the electronic structure and thermoelectric properties are systematically investigated via first-principles calculations and the semiclassical Boltzmann theory. Compared with that of three-dimensional (3D) GeTe, the Seebeck coefficient of 2D GeTe increases from 144 μV K⁻¹ to 560 μV K⁻¹ at 700 K, and the thermal conductivity decreases from 3.3 W m⁻¹ K⁻¹ to 2.3 W m⁻¹ K⁻¹. Thus, the ZT value increases from 0.8 to 1.14. On the basis of these results, the influence of vacancy atomic defects on the thermoelectric performance is investigated. With single-atom defects (SV-Ge and SV-Te), the ZT value increases at constant temperature. However, for double-atom defects in monolayer GeTe, the ZT value increases when DV-585 defects are present but decreases to varying degrees when DV-Ge and DV-Te defects are present. The ZT value of monolayer GeTe with DV-585 defects has an average increase of 0.56 at 300–800 K, which accords well with the experimental results. This study indicates that introducing single-atom vacancy defects somewhat improves the thermoelectric performance of monolayer GeTe, which provides an important point of reference for the development of GeTe in the two-dimensional materials field.