Thermoelectric Properties of Zintl Phase YbMg2Sb2

The goal of waste heat recovery using high-performance thermoelectric materials has promoted the development of promising materials with enhanced performance. Here, YbMg2Sb2 is studied as one such candidate p-type material with high thermoelectric performance predicted through theoretical calculations and verified by experimental studies. By Na doping at the Yb site, carrier concentration tuning and phonon scattering intensification are achieved simultaneously. The Na-doped samples hence show significantly higher ZT values compared to the undoped one. Our work sheds light on the design of high-performance thermoelectric materials and demonstrates that YbMg2Sb2-based Zintl compounds are promising thermoelectric materials.