@article{XU2021, 
author = {Wenjing XU and Zhongwei ZHANG and Chengyan LIU and Jie GAO and Zhenyuan YE and Chunguang CHEN and Ying PENG and Xiaobo BAI and Lei MIAO},
title = {Substantial thermoelectric enhancement achieved by manipulating the band structure and dislocations in Ag and La co-doped SnTe},
year = {2021},
journal = {Journal of Advanced Ceramics},
volume = {10},
number = {4},
pages = {860-870},
keywords = {SnTe, band convergence, dislocation, Ag and La co-doping, thermoelectric performance},
url = {https://www.sciopen.com/article/10.1007/s40145-021-0480-3},
doi = {10.1007/s40145-021-0480-3},
abstract = {Eco-friendly SnTe based thermoelectric materials are intensively studied recently as candidates to replace PbTe; yet the thermoelectric performance of SnTe is suppressed by its intrinsically high carrier concentration and high thermal conductivity. In this work, we confirm that the Ag and La co-doping can be applied to simultaneously enhance the power factor and reduce the thermal conductivity, contributing to a final promotion of figure of merit. On one hand, the carrier concentration and band offset between valence bands are concurrently reduced, promoting the power factor to a highest value of ~2436 μW·m-1·K-2 at 873 K. On the other hand, lots of dislocations (~3.16×107 mm-2) associated with impurity precipitates are generated, resulting in the decline of thermal conductivity to a minimum value of 1.87 W·m-1·K-1 at 873 K. As a result, a substantial thermoelectric performance enhancement up to zT ≈ 1.0 at 873 K is obtained for the sample Sn0.94Ag0.09La0.05Te, which is twice that of the pristine SnTe (zT ≈ 0.49 at 873 K). This strategy of synergistic manipulation of electronic band and microstructures via introducing rare earth elements could be applied to other systems to improve thermoelectric performance.}
}