Thermoelectric (TE) materials, which convert heat directly into electricity, offer a promising path toward waste-heat recovery and self-powered devices. Bismuth telluride (Bi2Te3) is a state-of-the-art TE material for near-room-temperature applications; however, its bulk form suffers from a low dimensionless figure-of-merit (ZT ≈ 1). This is due to a fundamental trade-off between its electrical and thermal transport properties. Nanostructuring provides a route to decouple these properties by enhancing phonon scattering while maintaining good carrier mobility. This study investigates the synthesis, characterization, and thermoelectric performance of nanostructured Bi2Te3 fabricated via hydrothermal synthesis followed by ball-milling and spark plasma sintering (SPS). X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning/transmission electron microscopy (SEM/TEM), Raman spectroscopy, and energy-dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) were used to probe the crystal structure and morphology. The Seebeck coefficient (S), electrical conductivity (σ), and thermal conductivity (κ) were measured over the 300–500 K range, and ZT values were calculated. The nanostructured samples exhibited nanoscale grains (≈50–100 nm) and high crystallinity. Compared with bulk Bi2Te3, the nanostructured material showed enhanced phonon scattering, leading to reduced κ and improved S without severely compromising σ. A maximum ZT of ≈1.3 was reached at 425 K, exceeding bulk values and comparable to literature reports of hydrothermally synthesized Bi2Te3 (ZT ≈ 0.8–1.03) (Zhang et al., 2022). These findings demonstrate that controlled nanostructuring is a viable strategy to enhance the TE performance of Bi2Te3 for energy harvesting applications. Future work should combine nanostructuring with optimized doping and orientation control to further improve ZT and mechanical robustness for flexible devices............... Keywords: ...........thermoelectric materials; bismuth telluride; nanostructuring; figure of merit; waste heat recovery; energy harvesting.