Significant enhancement of the dimensionless thermoelectric figure of merit of the binary Ag₂Te

In this article, we demonstrate that a significant enhancement of the thermoelectric performance of Ag2Te can be achieved, if the material is synthesized using high purity elements, and following a synthesis procedure which results in a high density sample. Specifically, we obtain a maximum ZT = 0.64 at T = 575 K which is a significant improvement to the previous value of ZT = 0.27 at T = 370 K.