Ductile Ag20S7Te3 with Excellent Shape-Conformability and High Thermoelectric Performance

Hetero-shaped thermoelectric (TE) generators (TEGs) can power the sensors used in safety monitoring systems of undersea oil pipelines, but their development is greatly limited by the lack of materials with both good shape-conformable ability and high TE performance. In this work, a new ductile inorganic TE material, Ag20S7Te3, with high TE performance is reported. At 300-600 K, Ag20S7Te3 crystallizes in a body-centered cubic structure, in which S and Te atoms randomly occupy the (0, 0, 1) site. Due to the smaller generalized stacking fault energy in the (101 over bar )[010] slip system, Ag20S7Te3 shows better ductility than Ag2S, yielding excellent shape-conformability. The high carrier mobility and low lattice thermal conductivity observed in Ag20S7Te3 result in a maximum dimensionless figure of merit (zT) of 0.80 at 600 K, which is comparable with the best commercial Bi2Te3-based alloys. The prototype TEG consisting of 10 Ag20S7Te3 strips displays an open-circuit voltage of 69.2 mV and a maximum power output of 17.1 mu W under the temperature difference of 70 K. This study creates a new route toward hetero-shaped TEG.

Automated summary

A new ductile inorganic TE material, Ag20S7Te3, with high TE performance, has been reported in this study, showing better ductility and shape-conformability than Ag2S. The high carrier mobility and low lattice thermal conductivity of Ag20S7Te3 result in a maximum figure of merit of 0.80 at 600 K. This study paves the way for the development of hetero-shaped TEG.