Lattice thermal conductivity of the Cu3SbSe4-Cu3SbS4 solid solution

The compositional dependence of the crystal structure and lattice thermal conductivity in the Cu3SbSe4-Cu3SbS4 system has been studied. The lattice parameters of the Cu3SbSe4-xSx compounds decrease linearly with x, and the tetragonal structure (space group 1 (4) over bar 2m no. 121) of the end compounds is maintained at all compositions. The lattice thermal conductivity is much lower than that predicted by a simple rule of mixtures, which is typical for a solid solution. The Debye model produces a very reasonable fit to the experimental lattice thermal conductivity data when phonon scattering due to atomic mass and size differences between Se and S is taken into account. Compounds in this series are likely to improve upon the thermoelectric performance of Cu3SbSe4, which has shown ZT = 0.72 when optimized. (C) 2011 American Institute of Physics. [doi:10.1063/1.3610385]