BiTe

Bismuth telluride · Bismuth monotelluride

Bismuth telluride is a crystalline semiconductor material composed of bismuth and tellurium. It is widely recognized for its excellent thermoelectric properties, which allow it to convert heat directly into electricity or provide active cooling through electrical input.

Crystal structure of BiTe (trigonal, P-3m1 (No. 164))
Ground-state structure · Materials Project
Overview

Key Properties

Cross-validated computational properties for Bismuth telluride, aggregated across 4 databases.

Band Gap

Metallic / not reported

Energy Above Hull

0.000 eV/atom
Best (lowest) across sources

Stability

On hull (stable)
2 DFT sources

Structures

56
4 databases, 13 space groups
Validation

Cross-Source DFT Agreement

How well independent DFT databases agree on the thermodynamics of BiTe. Tight agreement means computed properties can be trusted without re-running calculations.

Agreement Score

1.00 / 1.00
Trust tier: medium

Hull Spread

0.000 eV
EAH spread across sources

Sources Compared

2
jarvis, materials_project

Space Group Consensus

All match
Crystallography

Reported Structures

Lowest-energy structures reported for BiTe, ranked by energy above hull.

Space GroupCrystal SystemBand Gap (eV)E above hull (eV/atom)E/atom (eV)Density (g/cm³)
P-3m1 (No. 164)trigonal0.000.0003-42.1887.78
Fm-3m (No. 225)cubic0.000.1043-42.0848.12
R-3m (No. 166)trigonal0.000.1153-42.0738.29
Cmmm (No. 65)orthorhombic0.000.3563-41.8328.94
P-1 (No. 2)Triclinic8.86
No. 0unknown4.12
P-3m1 (No. 164)Trigonal7.73
P-3m1 (No. 164)Trigonal7.91
P-1 (No. 2)Triclinic9.92
Cm (No. 8)Monoclinic4.94
Cmcm (No. 63)Orthorhombic6.15
Cmmm (No. 65)Orthorhombic11.41
Uses

Applications

Where Bismuth telluride is used.

Thermoelectric generatorsPeltier cooling modulesInfrared sensorsThermal management systems
Reference

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about Bismuth telluride, answered from cross-validated data.

What is BiTe?

Bismuth telluride is a crystalline semiconductor material composed of bismuth and tellurium. It is widely recognized for its excellent thermoelectric properties, which allow it to convert heat directly into electricity or provide active cooling through electrical input.

More questions
What is BiTe used for?
Bismuth telluride (BiTe) is used in thermoelectric generators, peltier cooling modules, infrared sensors, and thermal management systems.
What is the band gap of BiTe?
Bismuth telluride (BiTe) is computed to be metallic (no band gap) in the reported DFT structures.
Is BiTe a metal, semiconductor, or insulator?
Computed band structures report no gap, so it is metallic.
Is BiTe thermodynamically stable?
Yes — Bismuth telluride (BiTe) sits on the convex hull (energy above hull 0 eV/atom), i.e. on hull (stable).
What is the crystal structure of BiTe?
The lowest-energy reported polymorph of Bismuth telluride (BiTe) is trigonal symmetry, space group P-3m1 (No. 164).
What is the density of BiTe?
The computed density of the ground-state structure of Bismuth telluride (BiTe) is 7.78 g/cm³.
How many polymorphs of BiTe are known?
56 structures of BiTe are reported across 4 databases, spanning 13 distinct space groups.
What elements does BiTe contain?
Bismuth telluride (BiTe) contains Bi and Te (2 elements).
Where does the data for BiTe come from?
BiTe data is cross-referenced from materials_project, mpaloe, cod.
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Related Compounds

Other Bismuth Chalcogenide Thermoelectrics in the database.

Data sources & attribution
  • materials_project — Data from the Materials Project. Cite: Jain et al., APL Materials 1, 011002 (2013).
  • mpaloe — Data from mpaloe.
  • cod — Data from the Crystallography Open Database. Cite: Grazulis et al., Nucleic Acids Res. 40, D420 (2012).

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