High thermoelectric properties of p-type pseudobinary (Cu4Te3)x–(Bi0.5Sb1.5Te3)1-x alloys prepared by spark plasma sintering.

Cu4Te3 substituted (Cu4Te3)x–(Bi0.5Sb1.5Te3)1-x (x=0–0.2) alloys were prepared using spark plasma sintering technique and their thermoelectric properties were evaluated. Measurements show that the alloy with x=0.025 reveals very high electrical conductivity and low lattice thermal conductivity, the Seebeck coefficient that increases linearly with temperature is dependent on Cu4Te3 concentration. The maximum ZT value of 1.26 for the alloy with x=0.025 is achieved at 474 K, whereas that of the state-of-the-art thermoelectric material Bi0.5Sb1.5Te3 is only 0.58 at 318 K, thus indicating that the currently prepared pseudobinary alloy is very encouraging. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]