Thermoelectric figure of merit, ZT, exceeding 2.6 at 850 K and copper electromigration inhibition have been demonstrated in indium modified Cu2Se.

Doping Cu2Se with Sn enhances the thermoelectric figure of merit and decreases material degradation in thermoelectric power generation conditions.

Entropy stabilization is a novel materials-design paradigm to realize new compounds with widely tunable properties. However, almost all entropystabilized materials so far are either conducting metals or insulating ceramics, with a clear dearth in the semiconducting regime. Here, a new class of the multicationic and -anionic entropy-stabilized chalcogenide alloys based on the (Ge,Sn,Pb)(S,Se,Te) formula are synthesized and characterized experimentally. The configurational entropy from the disorder of both the anion and the cation sublattices reaches a record value of ∼2.2 R mol −1 for the equimolar composition and stabilizes the singlephase solid solution. Theoretical calculations and experiments both show that the synthesized alloys are thermodynamically stable at the growth temperature and kinetically metastable at room temperature, segregating by spinodal decomposition at moderate temperatures. Doping and electronic transport measurements verify that the synthesized materials are ambipolarly dopable semiconductors, which pave the way for the wider adoption of entropy-stabilized chalcogenide alloys in functional applications.

Pb(7)Bi(4)Se(13) crystallizes in the monoclinic space group C2/m (No. 12) with a = 13.991(3) Å, b = 4.262(2) Å, c = 23.432(5) Å, and β = 98.3(3)° at 300 K. In its three-dimensional structure, two NaCl-type layers A and B with respective thicknesses N(1) = 5 and N(2) = 4 [N = number of edge-sharing (Pb/Bi)Se6 octahedra along the central diagonal] are arranged along the c axis in such a way that the bridging monocapped trigonal prisms, PbSe7, are located on a pseudomirror plane parallel to (001). This complex atomic-scale structure results in a remarkably low thermal conductivity (∼0.33 W m(-1) K(-1) at 300 K). Electronic structure calculations and diffuse-reflectance measurements indicate that Pb(7)Bi(4)Se(13) is a narrow-gap semiconductor with an indirect band gap of 0.23 eV. Multiple peaks and valleys were observed near the band edges, suggesting that Pb(7)Bi(4)Se(13) is a promising compound for both n- and p-type doping. Electronic-transport data on the as-grown material reveal an n-type degenerate semiconducting behavior with a large thermopower (∼-160 μV K(-1) at 300 K) and a relatively low electrical resistivity. The inherently low thermal conductivity of Pb(7)Bi(4)Se(13) and its tunable electronic properties point to a high thermoelectric figure of merit for properly optimized samples.

PbBiSe, the selenium analogue of heyrovsyite, crystallizes in the orthorhombic space group Cmcm (#63) with a = 4.257(1) Å, b = 14.105(3) Å, and c = 32.412(7) Å at 300 K. Its crystal structure consists of two NaCl-type layers, A and B, with equal thickness, N = N = 7, where N is the number of edge-sharing [Pb/Bi]Se octahedra along the central diagonal. In the crystal structure, adjacent layers are arranged along the c-axis such that bridging bicapped trigonal prisms, PbSe, are located on a pseudomirror plane parallel to (001). Therefore, PbBiSe corresponds to a L member of the lillianite homologous series. Electronic transport measurements indicate that the compound is a heavily doped narrow band gap n-type semiconductor, with electrical conductivity and thermopower values of 350 S/cm and -53 μV/K at 300 K. Interestingly, the compound exhibits a moderately low thermal conductivity, ∼1.1 W/mK, in the whole temperature range, owing to its complex crystal structure, which enables strong phonon scattering at the twin boundaries between adjacent NaCl-type layers A and B. The dimensionless figure of merit, ZT, increases with temperature to 0.25 at 673 K.

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Gradual stoichiometric chemical substitution of Cu by Ag in the p-type Cu2Se phase enables phase segregation and incremental switching of the electronic transport to n-type behavior for large Ag/Cu ratios.

Single-phase polycrystalline powders of SrSb HfSe ( x = 0, 0.005, 0.01), a new member of the chalcogenide perovskites, were synthesized using a combination of high temperature solid-state reaction and mechanical alloying approaches. Structural analysis using single-crystal as well as powder X-ray diffraction revealed that the synthesized materials are isostructural with SrZrSe, crystallizing in the orthorhombic space group Pnma (#62) with lattice parameters a = 8.901(2) Å; b = 3.943(1) Å; c = 14.480(3) Å; and Z = 4 for the x = 0 composition. Thermal conductivity data of SrHfSe revealed low values ranging from 0.9 to 1.3 W m K from 300 to 700 K, which is further lowered to 0.77 W m K by doping with 1 mol % Sb for Sr. Electronic property measurements indicate that the compound is quite insulating with an electrical conductivity of 2.9 S/cm at 873 K, which was improved to 6.7 S/cm by 0.5 mol % Sb doping. Thermopower data revealed that SrHfSe is a p-type semiconductor with thermopower values reaching a maximum of 287 μV/K at 873 K for the 1.0 mol % Sb sample. The optical band gap of SrSb HfSe samples, as determined by density functional theory calculations and the diffuse reflectance method, is ∼1.00 eV and increases with Sb concentration to 1.15 eV. Careful analysis of the partial densities of states (PDOS) indicates that the band gap in SrHfSe is essentially determined by the Se-4p and Hf-5d orbitals with little to no contribution from Sr atoms. Typically, band edges of p- and d-character are a good indication of potentially strong absorption coefficient due to the high density of states of the localized p and d orbitals. This points to potential application of SrHfSe as absorbing layer in photovoltaic devices.