Regulating Te Vacancies through Dopant Balancing via Excess Ag Enables Rebounding Power Factor and High Thermoelectric Performance in p‐Type PbTe (Adv. Sci. 20/2021)

Abstract

Defect Engineering In article number 2100895, Yeon Sik Jung, Min‐Wook Oh, and co‐workers demonstrate the underlying defect chemistry on the rebounding power factor of an Na and Ag co‐doped PbTe. Excess Ag doping is proven to be effective to be the Te vacancy scavenger by forming interstitial Ag clusters, which is confirmed by advanced STEM and in situ characterizations.

Investigation of Mn Single and Co-Doping in Thermoelectric CoSb3-Skutterudite: A Way Toward a Beneficial Composite Effect

“…The TE conversion efficiency is quantified by the dimensionless figure of merit zT = PF T κ –1 = S 2 σ T κ –1 (PF, power factor; T , absolute temperature; S , Seebeck coefficient; σ, electrical conductivity; and κ, thermal conductivity). In the range of ambient to mid-temperature (300–800 K), several compounds were reported with zT values above unity and beyond, such as Bi 2 Te 3 , , PbTe, , GeTe, , and the Mg 3 Sb 2 -based compounds, , which have been extensively studied recently, leading to a theoretical conversion efficiency of 7–14%. However, most of those materials contain expensive and/or toxic elements, which limit or even prevent their large applications.…”