TY  - JOUR
AU  - Yao, Yitao
AU  - Gao, Zhiqiang
AU  - Qiu, Pengfei
AU  - Zhou, Jiali
AU  - Zhang, Jiawei
AU  - Wu, Yasong
AU  - Yang, Jiong
AU  - Shi, Xun
PY  - 2026
TI  - Enhanced plasticity in Ag-excessive Ag2Se-based thermoelectric materials
JO  - Journal of Materiomics
SN  - 2352-8478
VL  - 12
IS  - 3
AB  - Recently, Ag2Se has attracted great interest due to its excellent room-temperature thermoelectric (TE) performance, interesting mechanical properties, and environmental friendliness. Tuning the Ag stoichiometry is a conventional strategy to optimize the TE performance of Ag2Se-based materials, but the effects of Ag content on the mechanical properties are still unclear. In this work, we find Ag-excess has weak influence on the plasticity of Ag2Se, but can significantly enhance the plasticity of S-alloyed Ag2Se. The Ag-excessive Ag2.01Se0.7S0.3 can endure large bending strain above 20% without cracking, comparable with those of many metals. The improved plasticity is possibly caused by the increased density of Ag—S bonds. The TE figure-of-merit of plastic Ag2.01Se0.7S0.3 reaches 0.53 at room temperature. The flexible TE device consisting of free-standing Ag2.01Se0.7S0.3 films shows high maximum material normalized power density up to 0.20 W/m under the temperature difference of 25 K. This work sheds light on the further investigation of mechanical properties of Ag-based TE materials.
UR  - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmat.2026.101179
DO  - 10.1016/j.jmat.2026.101179