Improved thermoelectric figure of merit of self‐doped Ag8–xGeTe6 compounds with glass‐like thermal conductivity |
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| Authors: | T J Zhu S N Zhang S H Yang X B Zhao |
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| Institution: | State Key Laboratory of Silicon Materials and Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, P.R. China |
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| Abstract: | Nonstoichiometric Ag8–xGeTe6 (x = 0, 0.01, 0.02, 0.04) compounds with complex crystal structure are demonstrated to exhibit very low thermal conductivities of <0.28 W/m K, comparable with the calculated theoretical minimum thermal conductivity κmin. Ag deficiency leads to the improved electrical properties and a maximum thermoelectric figure of merit ZT of 0.85 has been obtained at 623 K for Ag7.99GeTe6, about 30% increase compared to that of stoichiometric Ag8GeTe6. (© 2010 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim) |
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| Keywords: | silver germanium tellurides thermoelectrics thermal conductivity |
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