There has been much interest in tin selenide (SnSe) in
the thermoelectric
community since the discovery of the record zT in the material in
2014. Manufacturing techniques used to produce SnSe are largely energy-intensive
(e.g., spark plasma sintering); however, recently, in previous work,
SnSe has been shown to be produced via a low embodied energy printing
technique, resulting in 3D samples with high zT values (up to 1.7).
Due to the additive manufacturing technique, the manufacturing time
required was substantial. In this work, 3D samples were printed using
the inorganic binder sodium metasilicate and reusable molds. This
facilitated a single-step printing process that substantially reduced
the manufacturing time. The printed samples were thermally stable
through multiple thermal cycles, and a peak zT of 0.751 at 823 K was
observed with the optimum binder concentration. A proof-of-concept
thermoelectric generator produced the highest power output of any
reported printed Se-based TEG to date.