High-temperature thermoelectric properties of AgPb18SbTe20 prepared by high pressure

The thermoelectric (TE) properties of AgPb18SbTe20 synthesized by high pressure (3.5–5.5 GPa) were investigated in the temperature range of 20–300 °C. All the samples crystallize in the NaCl-type structure without noticeable secondary phase. The measurement results show that the TE properties, including Seebeck coefficient electrical conductivity, and thermal conductivity of AgPb18SbTe20, could be tuned effectively by adjusting the synthetic pressure. The maximum figure-of-merit reaches 0.76 at 300°C for the sample prepared at 4.5 GPa.