Abstract
Thermoelectric material has attracted more attentions as a promising energy material in recent years. Research nowadays are devoted to improvement of figure-of-merit (zT=S2T/ ρ κ ). Motivated by p-type AgSbTe2 compound, ternary Ag-Sb-Te have been reported as an important thermoelectric system. Although ternary AgSbTe2 compound has been considered as a candidate for thermoelectric materials with the advantages of low thermal conductivity ( κ p=0.6 WK-1 m-1), the relatively high electrical resistivity ( ρ =7.5*10-3 Ω cm) has limited its applications. This invention disclosed brand-new Ag-Sb-Te bulk materials with very fine microstructures that nanoscale Ag2Te phase precipitate uniformly in the multi-phase matrix through class I reaction, liquid=Ag2Te+AgSbTe2+ δ . Moreover, the electrical resistivity ( ρ ) measured by four-probe method is as low as 8.4*10-4( Ω cm) at room temperature, which guarantees the promise of those ternary bulk materials.