Synergistic optimization of thermoelectric performance in p-type Ag2Te through Cu substitution

Superionic conductors, which exhibit liquid-like phonon transport but crystal-like carrier transport, have attracted great attention and broad research interest in the thermoelectric community. Ag2Te is a superionic conductor; however, its small band gap and large Ag vacancy formation energy impede its application as a prominent p-type thermoelectric material. In this work, synergistic optimization of the thermoelectric performance of Ag2Te through Cu substitution is realized through a combination of experimental and theoretical efforts. For the electrical transport, Cu substitution systematically increases the band gap of Ag2Te and reduces the cation vacancy formation energy. These two beneficial effects simultaneously increase the electrical conductivity and suppress the bipolar effect, thereby greatly enhancing the p-type electrical transport properties of Ag2Te. For the thermal transport, alloying Cu2Te with Ag2Te significantly reduces the thermal conductivity through not only point defect scattering but also softening of the interatomic interactions. The latter is attributed to the relatively small Cu atoms vibrating in the oversized 8c sites. This two-fold optimization results in maximum thermoelectric figure of merit zT values of over 1.3 at 773 K for both Ag1.2Cu0.8Te and AgCuTe, demonstrating the great potential of Ag2−xCuxTe as a promising p-type thermoelectric material system.