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Concerted Rattling in CsAg 5 Te 3 Leading to Ultralow Thermal Conductivity and High Thermoelectric Performance
Author(s) -
Lin Hua,
Tan Gangjian,
Shen JinNi,
Hao Shiqiang,
Wu LiMing,
Calta Nicholas,
Malliakas Christos,
Wang Si,
Uher Ctirad,
Wolverton Christopher,
Kanatzidis Mercouri G.
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
angewandte chemie international edition
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 5.831
H-Index - 550
eISSN - 1521-3773
pISSN - 1433-7851
DOI - 10.1002/anie.201605015
Subject(s) - thermoelectric materials , thermal conductivity , figure of merit , thermoelectric effect , materials science , seebeck coefficient , phonon scattering , condensed matter physics , electrical resistivity and conductivity , phonon , thermodynamics , optoelectronics , composite material , physics , quantum mechanics
Thermoelectric (TE) materials convert heat energy directly into electricity, and introducing new materials with high conversion efficiency is a great challenge because of the rare combination of interdependent electrical and thermal transport properties required to be present in a single material. The TE efficiency is defined by the figure of merit ZT =( S 2 σ ) T / κ , where S is the Seebeck coefficient, σ is the electrical conductivity, κ is the total thermal conductivity, and T is the absolute temperature. A new p‐type thermoelectric material, CsAg 5 Te 3 , is presented that exhibits ultralow lattice thermal conductivity (ca. 0.18 Wm −1 K −1 ) and a high figure of merit of about 1.5 at 727 K. The lattice thermal conductivity is the lowest among state‐of‐the‐art thermoelectrics; it is attributed to a previously unrecognized phonon scattering mechanism that involves the concerted rattling of a group of Ag ions that strongly raises the Grüneisen parameters of the material.