Direct Joule-Heated Non-Equilibrium Synthesis Enables High Performing Thermoelectrics

Direct Joule-Heated Non-Equilibrium Synthesis Enables High Performing Thermoelectrics | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Article Direct Joule-Heated Non-Equilibrium Synthesis Enables High Performing Thermoelectrics Kedar Hippalgaonkar, Chenguang Zhang, Jose Recatalà Gómez, Zainul Aabdin, and 19 more This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-7403361/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract High-throughput synthesis of bulk inorganic materials is crucial for accelerating functional materials discovery but is hindered by slow, energy-intensive solid-state methods. We introduce Direct Joule-Heated Synthesis (DJS), a rapid, single-step and scalable solid-state synthesis technique achieving a 10⁵-fold speedup and 20,000× energy efficiency improvement over conventional synthesis. DJS enables the synthesis of dense, bulk chalcogenides (Bi 0.5 Sb 1.5 Te 3 , AgSbTe₂), achieving a zT of 2.3 at 573 K in optimally Cd/Se co-doped AgSbTe₂, one of the highest for polycrystalline materials at this temperature. DJS enables optimal co-doping and rapid, non-equilibrium solidification, producing lamellar microstructures, interfacial regions, and cation-ordered nanodomains that scatter all-scale phonons, achieving ultralow lattice thermal conductivity (~ 0.2 W m⁻¹K⁻¹ at 573 K). DJS establishes a new benchmark for scalable and fast synthesis, accelerating functional material discovery. Physical sciences/Materials science/Techniques and instrumentation/Design, synthesis and processing Physical sciences/Materials science/Materials for energy and catalysis/Thermoelectrics Physical sciences/Nanoscience and technology/Nanoscale materials/Synthesis and processing Full Text Additional Declarations There is NO Competing Interest. Supplementary Files DJSSI.docx Movie S1. Typical DJS process for undoped AgSbTe2. The corresponding time vs. temperature profile for the reaction can be found in Fig. 1C. DJSreaction.mov Supplementary Information for Direct Joule-Heated Non-Equilibrium Synthesis Enables High Performing Thermoelectrics Cite Share Download PDF Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-7403361","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":512955523,"identity":"364a86f3-f3cf-4d7f-85eb-778568e4b456","order_by":0,"name":"Kedar 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Typical DJS process for undoped AgSbTe2. The corresponding time vs. temperature profile for the reaction can be found in Fig. 1C.","description":"","filename":"DJSSI.docx","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-7403361/v1/eb4cc07246de13c666355531.docx"},{"id":95360761,"identity":"fe5f5828-d84e-4f06-8a8e-482889cdbc0f","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-11-07 07:28:24","extension":"mov","order_by":2,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"supplement","size":199919875,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"Supplementary Information for Direct Joule-Heated Non-Equilibrium Synthesis Enables High Performing Thermoelectrics","description":"","filename":"DJSreaction.mov","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-7403361/v1/4e64598100a9cb0bc99981e6.mov"}],"financialInterests":"There is \u003cb\u003eNO\u003c/b\u003e Competing Interest.","formattedTitle":"Direct Joule-Heated Non-Equilibrium Synthesis Enables High Performing Thermoelectrics","fulltext":[],"fulltextSource":"","fullText":"","funders":[],"hasAdminPriorityOnWorkflow":false,"hasManuscriptDocX":false,"hasOptedInToPreprint":true,"hasPassedJournalQc":"","hasAnyPriority":true,"hideJournal":true,"highlight":"","institution":"","isAcceptedByJournal":false,"isAuthorSuppliedPdf":true,"isDeskRejected":"","isHiddenFromSearch":false,"isInQc":false,"isInWorkflow":false,"isPdf":true,"isPdfUpToDate":true,"isWithdrawnOrRetracted":false,"journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true},"keywords":"","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-7403361/v1","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-7403361/v1","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"\u003cp\u003eHigh-throughput synthesis of bulk inorganic materials is crucial for accelerating functional materials discovery but is hindered by slow, energy-intensive solid-state methods. We introduce Direct Joule-Heated Synthesis (DJS), a rapid, single-step and scalable solid-state synthesis technique achieving a 10⁵-fold speedup and 20,000\u0026times; energy efficiency improvement over conventional synthesis. DJS enables the synthesis of dense, bulk chalcogenides (Bi\u003csub\u003e0.5\u003c/sub\u003eSb\u003csub\u003e1.5\u003c/sub\u003eTe\u003csub\u003e3\u003c/sub\u003e, AgSbTe₂), achieving a zT of 2.3 at 573 K in optimally Cd/Se co-doped AgSbTe₂, one of the highest for polycrystalline materials at this temperature. DJS enables optimal co-doping and rapid, non-equilibrium solidification, producing lamellar microstructures, interfacial regions, and cation-ordered nanodomains that scatter all-scale phonons, achieving ultralow lattice thermal conductivity (~\u0026thinsp;0.2 W m⁻\u0026sup1;K⁻\u0026sup1; at 573 K). DJS establishes a new benchmark for scalable and fast synthesis, accelerating functional material discovery.\u003c/p\u003e","manuscriptTitle":"Direct Joule-Heated Non-Equilibrium Synthesis Enables High Performing Thermoelectrics","msid":"","msnumber":"","nonDraftVersions":[{"code":1,"date":"2025-11-07 07:28:16","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-7403361/v1","editorialEvents":[],"status":"published","journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true}}],"origin":"","ownerIdentity":"e7453598-8c33-492c-a062-689e4d30c913","owner":[],"postedDate":"November 7th, 2025","published":true,"recentEditorialEvents":[],"rejectedJournal":[],"revision":"","amendment":"","status":"posted","subjectAreas":[{"id":54486509,"name":"Physical sciences/Materials science/Techniques and instrumentation/Design, synthesis and processing"},{"id":54486510,"name":"Physical sciences/Materials science/Materials for energy and catalysis/Thermoelectrics"},{"id":54486511,"name":"Physical sciences/Nanoscience and technology/Nanoscale materials/Synthesis and processing"}],"tags":[],"updatedAt":"2025-11-07T07:28:16+00:00","versionOfRecord":[],"versionCreatedAt":"2025-11-07 07:28:16","video":"","vorDoi":"","vorDoiUrl":"","workflowStages":[]},"version":"v1","identity":"rs-7403361","journalConfig":"researchsquare"},"__N_SSP":true},"page":"/article/[identity]/[[...version]]","query":{"redirect":"/article/rs-7403361","identity":"rs-7403361","version":["v1"]},"buildId":"8U1c8b4HqxoKbykW_rLl7","isFallback":false,"isExperimentalCompile":false,"dynamicIds":[84888],"gssp":true,"scriptLoader":[]}