High-Conductivity Chalcogenide Glasses in Ag-Ga 2 Te 3 -SnTe Systems and Their Suitability as Thermoelectric Materials.

A novel high-conductivity Ag x [(Ga 2 Te 3 ) 34 (SnTe) 66 ] 100- x tellurium-based glassy system was fabricated via melt spinning with the glass formation area in the range of x = 0-15 mol %. A bulk Ag 10 [(Ga 2 Te 3 ) 34 (SnTe) 66 ] 90 glass (A10) was obtained via spark plasma sintering at 450 K using a 5 min dwell time and 400 MPa pressure. The fabricated A10 glass exhibited higher room-temperature conductivity (σ 300 K = 46 S m -1 ), larger glass transition temperature ( T g = 482 K), and ultralower thermal conductivity (∼0.19 W m -1 K -1 ) compared to those of previously reported Cu-Ge-Te, Cu-As-Te, Cu-Ge-As-Te, and Cu-As-Se-Te glassy systems with the approximate doping concentrations of 5-20%, demonstrating that this distinctive Ag-Ga 2 Te 3 -SnTe system is interesting materials for thermoelectric applications. The high-conductivity Ag-Ga 2 Te 3 -SnTe glassy system will extend investigations into similar glassy semiconductors and also can be used for preparing glass ceramics with potential applications in other fields.