AgSbSe2 possesses extremely low thermal conductivity and high Seebeck coefficient, but the low electronic conductivity leads to a low ZT value. In this paper, Na is used to substitute Sb to improve the electronic conductivity. The results show that Na doping not only improves the power factor caused by the enhanced carrier concentration, but also decreases the thermal conductivity due to point defects, nanoscale stacking faults and Na-rich precipitate. Consequently, a high ZT value of 0.92 is achieved in the AgSb0.99Na0.01Se2 sample.
Oxygen‐containing compounds are promising thermoelectric (TE) materials for their chemical and thermal stability. As compared with the high‐performance p‐type counterparts (e.g., ZT ≈1.5 for BiCuSeO), the enhancement of the TE performance of n‐type oxygen‐containing materials remains challenging due to their mediocre electrical conductivity and high thermal conductivity. Here, n‐type layered Bi2O2Se is reported as a potential TE material, of which the thermal conductivity and electrical transport properties can be effectively tuned via carrier engineering and hierarchical microstructure. By selective modification of insulating [Bi2O2]2+ layers with Ta dopant, carrier concentration can be increased by four orders of magnitude (from 1015 to 1019 cm−3) while relatively high carrier mobility can be maintained, thus greatly enhancing the power factors (≈451.5 µW K−2 m−1). Meanwhile, the hierarchical microstructure can be induced by Ta doping, and the phonon scattering can be strengthened by atomic point defects, nanodots of 5–10 nm and grains of sub‐micrometer level, which progressively suppresses the lattice thermal conductivity. Accordingly, the ZT value of Bi1.90Ta0.10O2Se reaches 0.36 at 773 K, a ≈350% improvement in comparison with that of the pristine Bi2O2Se. The average ZT value of 0.30 from 500 to 823 K is outstanding among n‐type oxygen‐containing TE materials. This work provides a desirable way for enhancing the ZT values in oxygen‐containing compounds.
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