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Reduced Thermal Conductivity in Nanostructured AgSbTe(2) Thermoelectric Material, Obtained by Arc-Melting

AgSbTe(2) intermetallic compound is a promising thermoelectric material. It has also been described as necessary to obtain LAST and TAGS alloys, some of the best performing thermoelectrics of the last decades. Due to the random location of Ag and Sb atoms in the crystal structure, the electronic str...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Gainza, Javier, Serrano-Sánchez, Federico, Dura, Oscar J., Nemes, Norbert M., Martínez, Jose Luis, Fernández-Díaz, María Teresa, Alonso, José Antonio
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9653711/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36364685
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/nano12213910
Descripción
Sumario:AgSbTe(2) intermetallic compound is a promising thermoelectric material. It has also been described as necessary to obtain LAST and TAGS alloys, some of the best performing thermoelectrics of the last decades. Due to the random location of Ag and Sb atoms in the crystal structure, the electronic structure is highly influenced by the atomic ordering of these atoms and makes the accurate determination of the Ag/Sb occupancy of paramount importance. We report on the synthesis of polycrystalline AgSbTe(2) by arc-melting, yielding nanostructured dense pellets. SEM images show a conspicuous layered nanostructuration, with a layer thickness of 25–30 nm. Neutron powder diffraction data show that AgSbTe(2) crystalizes in the cubic Pm-3m space group, with a slight deficiency of Te, probably due to volatilization during the arc-melting process. The transport properties show some anomalies at ~600 K, which can be related to the onset temperature for atomic ordering. The average thermoelectric figure of merit remains around ~0.6 from ~550 up to ~680 K.