2017/02/17 by Atta Ullah Khan, Rabih Al Rahal Al Orabi, Amir Pakdel +6 · 1 citation
Materials Science · Engineering · Physics and Astronomy · #Advanced Thermoelectric Materials and Devices #Perovskite Materials and Applications #Advanced Condensed Matter Physics #Thermoelectric effect #Seebeck coefficient #Materials science #Thermoelectric materials #Electrical resistivity and conductivity #Doping #Semiconductor #Miscibility #Condensed matter physics #Band gap #Dimensionless quantity #Power factor #Figure of merit #Thermodynamics #Optoelectronics #Composite material #Power (physics) #Polymer #Physics
paper · doi:10.1021/acs.chemmater.6b05344
openalex publication_date 2017/02/17 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/22
We report for the first time the thermoelectric properties of CuCr 2– x Sb x S 4 (0.22 ≤ x ≤ 0.5). Although CuCr 2 S 4 has been reported to be a metallic compound, addition of Sb shifts the material toward the semiconductor side. This is confirmed by band structure calculations of CuCr 2– x Sb x S 4 ( x = 0, 0.25, 0.5) models. Increasing Sb content enhances the power factor. However, beyond x = 0.3, further Sb addition lowers the electrical conductivity and power factor. A very interesting point is the simultaneous increase of the Seebeck coefficient as well as the electrical conductivity with increasing temperature, which acts like a variable range hopping (VRH) compounds but possesses much better properties than those having VRH. Samples were annealed for 48 h prior to thermoelectric properties measurements to have a reliable dimensionless figure of merit (ZT). An attractive ZT of 0.43 is obtained at ∼650 °C. The attractive thermoelectric properties we discovered by driving a metal compound into a semiconductor make this compound an interesting thermoelectric material especially because of the cheap constituent elements compared to those of typical state-of-the-art thermoelectric materials. Furthermore, this material is stable up to 650 °C at least, a relatively high temperature for sulfides. Additionally, we discovered a miscibility gap in this solid solution close to an Sb content of 0.15; although a detailed study dedicated entirely to this miscibility gap would be required, it will encourage the researchers to further explore this system.