Enhancement of thermoelectric properties by Na doping in Te-free p-type AgSbSe 2

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.