Alloying to increase the band gap for improving thermoelectric properties of Ag_(2)Te

Abstract

Ag_(2)Te simultaneously shows high mobility and low thermal conductivity, however the relatively low band gap of ~0.2 eV prevents it from achieving high thermoelectric figure of merit, zT, in the high temperature phase. In this study, the band gap of Ag_(2)Te has been increased enabling a zT of unity by forming alloys and composites with PbTe, thereby demonstrating the importance of exploiting potentially good thermoelectrics among these small band gap semiconductors and similar materials.

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