Thermoelectric properties of Ag3AuTe2

Electronic structure calculations predict Ag3AuTe2 to be a small-band-gap s emiconductor. Polycrystalline samples of the pure and doped materials have been synthesized, and the physical properties are reported. Thermoelectric power measurements indicate that pure Ag3AuTe2 is a p-type material with a very large room-temperature Seebeck coefficient of 530 mu V/K. The thermal conductivity is very low, and at room temperature, is lower than that of th e best thermoelectrics. The transport properties were found to be very sens itive to chemical doping and nonstoichiometry. Although samples made with e xcess Ag resulted in improved thermoelectric performance at higher temperat ures (> 500 K), the large resistivity of these materials makes them noncomp etitive with state-of-the-art thermoelectrics. (C) 2000 American Institute of Physics. [S0021-8979(00)06222-8].