Enhanced power factor in the promising thermoelectric material SnPbxTe prepared via zone-melting

Abstract

Tin telluride (SnTe) has recently attracted much attention as a promising thermoelectric material. In this work, SnTe is alloyed with additional Pb, and the high density crystalline ingots of SnPb_xTe (x = 0, 0.02, 0.04, and 0.06) have been synthesized by a zone-melting method. Through this method, SnPb_xTe samples show larger power factors than those prepared by other methods, and a maximum value of 30.5 μW cm⁻¹ K⁻² at 823 K has been reached in p-type SnPb_0.02Te, which is the highest value reported so far. As a result, a promising figure of merit ZT of ∼0.81 has been obtained at 823 K.