Anisotropic Thermoelectric Materials: Pentagonal PtM2 (M = S, Se, Te)

We here report a new pentagonal network structure of the PtM2 (M = S, Se, Te) monolayers with the P21/c (no. 14) space group. The electronic structure and thermoelectric properties of the pentagonal PtM2 monolayers are calculated through the VASP and BoltzTraP codes. We verify their dynamic and thermodynamic stabilities by calculating their phonon spectra and simulating ab initio molecular dynamics. It is found that the new material belongs to the medium-wide indirect band gap semiconductors from the PBE and HSE06 methods. At 300 K, the lattice thermal conductivities (Kl) of the pentagonal PtTe2 in the x and y directions are the smallest among these three materials, being 1.77 and 5.17 W/m K, respectively. The anisotropic zT values (2.60/1.14) in the x/y direction of the pentagonal PtTe2 at 300 K are much greater than those of the pentagonal PtSe2 (1.75/0.82) and the pentagonal PtS2 (0.58/0.16) at 300 K. Importantly, the p-type pentagonal PtTe2 also has excellent thermoelectric properties at 600 K, with a zT value of 5.03 in the x direction, indicating that the p-type pentagonal PtTe2 has a good application potential in the thermoelectric field.