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High Thermoelectric Performance in SnTe–AgSbTe2 Alloys from Lattice Softening, Giant Phonon–Vacancy Scattering, and Valence Band Convergence

Journal Article · · ACS Energy Letters
 [1];  [2];  [2];  [2];  [2];  [3];  [4];  [5];  [3];  [2];  [2];  [2];  [6]
  1. Northwestern Univ., Evanston, IL (United States). Dept. of Chemistry
  2. Northwestern Univ., Evanston, IL (United States). Dept. of Materials Science and Engineering
  3. Univ. of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI (United States). Dept. of Physics
  4. Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States). Materials Science Division
  5. Northwestern Univ., Evanston, IL (United States). Dept. of Chemistry; Wuhan Univ. of Technology (China). State Key Lab. of Advanced Technology for Materials Synthesis and Processing
  6. Northwestern Univ., Evanston, IL (United States). Dept. of Chemistry; Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States). Materials Science Division
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We report on the underlying mechanism that enables the SnTe-AgSbTe2 system to exhibit superior thermoelectric figure of merit (ZT) compared to its parent compound SnTe. We show that AgSbTe2 alloying has a profound impact on the band structure of SnTe by converging the energies of its light and heavy valence bands, leading to significantly enhanced Seebeck coefficients. We have also unraveled a significant connection between alloying and defect stability in this system, wherein the Sn vacancy concentration increases significantly when Ag and Sb are alloyed on the Sn site. The increased Sn vacancy concentration dramatically reduces the lattice thermal conductivity through both lattice softening and phonon-vacancy scattering to ~0.4 W m-1 K-1 at 800 K. Consequently, a ZT value of 1.2 at 800 K for AgSn5SbTe7 can be achieved by doping I on Te sites. Lastly, this represents a 300% improvement over pristine SnTe, outperforming many reported SnTe-based thermoelectric materials.
Research Organization:
Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States); Northwestern Univ., Evanston, IL (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES) (SC-22)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC02-06CH11357; SC0014520
OSTI ID:
1459892
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 1775442
Journal Information:
ACS Energy Letters, Journal Name: ACS Energy Letters Journal Issue: 3 Vol. 3; ISSN 2380-8195
Publisher:
American Chemical Society (ACS)Copyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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Cited By (11)

Manipulation of Band Structure and Interstitial Defects for Improving Thermoelectric SnTe journal June 2018
Thermoelectric GeTe with Diverse Degrees of Freedom Having Secured Superhigh Performance journal February 2019
Temperature Dependent n-Type Self Doping in Nominally 19-Electron Half-Heusler Thermoelectric Materials journal September 2018
Controllable Colloidal Synthesis of Tin(II) Chalcogenide Nanocrystals and Their Solution-Processed Flexible Thermoelectric Thin Films journal July 2018
Simultaneous Boost of Power Factor and Figure‐of‐Merit in In–Cu Codoped SnTe journal July 2019
Effect of Sn element on optimizing thermoelectric performance of Te nanowires journal January 2018
Core–shell nanostructures introduce multiple potential barriers to enhance energy filtering for the improvement of the thermoelectric properties of SnTe journal January 2020
High-performance electron-doped GeMnTe 2 : hierarchical structure and low thermal conductivity journal January 2019
Eutectoid nano-precipitates inducing remarkably enhanced thermoelectric performance in (Sn 1−x Cd x Te) 1−y (Cu 2 Te) y journal January 2020
Acoustic phonon spectrum engineering in bulk crystals via incorporation of dopant atoms journal May 2018
Low lattice thermal conductivity by alloying SnTe with AgSbTe 2 and CaTe/MnTe journal August 2019

Figures / Tables (7)

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Figure 5(p. 28)figure Figure 5

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