Preparation and transport properties of AgSbTe2 by high-pressure and high-temperature

In the paper, ternary thermoelectric material AgSbTe2 was prepared by high-pressure and high-temperature (HPHT) technique. Near single phase AgSbTe2 was obtained using normal stoichiometric powder mixtures which were indexed by powder X-ray diffraction. The dependence of transport properties for AgSbTe2 on synthetic pressure was studied at room temperature. With the increase of synthetic pressure, the electrical resistivity and Seebeck coefficient of AgSbTe2 decrease while the power factor increases, and the maximum value reaches 10.3 mu W cm(-1) K-2 at the synthetic pressure of 5.2 GPa. The results show that the HPHT offers to a potential processing route to produce single phase ternary thermoelectric material AgSbTe2, which is helpful to improve its thermoelectric properties. (C) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.