Preparation of n‐type Bi2Te3 thermoelectric materials by non‐contact dispenser printing combined with selective laser melting

The manufacturing cost has been a bottle neck for broader applications of thermoelectric (TE) modules. We have developed a rapid, facile, and low cost method that combines non‐contact dispenser printing with selective laser melting (SLM) and we demonstrate it on n‐type Bi2Te3‐based materials. Using this approach, single phase n‐type Bi2Te2.7Se0.3 thin layers with the Seebeck coefficient of −152 µV K−1 at 300 K have been prepared. Assembling such thin layers on top of each other, the performance of thus prepared bulk sample is comparable to Bi2Te3‐based materials fabricated by the conventional techniques. Dispenser printing combined with SLM is a promising manufacturing process for TE materials.