Chalcopyrite ZnSnSb₂: A Promising Thermoelectric Material

Ternary compounds with a tetragonal chalcopyrite structure, such as CuGaTe₂, are promising thermoelectric (TE) materials. It has been demonstrated in various chalcopyrite systems, including compounds with quaternary chalcopyrite-like structures, that the lattice parameter ratio, c/ a, being exactly 2.00 to have a pseudo-cubic structure is key to increase the degeneracy at the valence band edge and ultimately achieve high TE performance. Considering the fact that ZnSnSb₂ with a chalcopyrite structure is reported to have c/ a close to 2.00, it is expected to have multiple valence bands leading to a high p-type zT. However, there are no complete investigations on the high temperature TE properties of ZnSnSb₂ mainly because of the difficulty of obtaining a single-phase ZnSnSb₂. In the present study, pure ZnSnSb₂ samples with no impurities are synthesized successfully using a Sn flux-based method and TE properties are characterized up to 585 K. Transport properties and thermal analysis indicate that the structure of ZnSnSb₂ remains chalcopyrite with no order-disorder transition and clearly show that ZnSnSb₂ can be made to exhibit a high zT in the low-to-mid temperature range through further optimization.