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N-type thermoelectric materials PbTe doped with iodine (PbTe 1−x I x , x = 0.0001, 0.0003, 0.0007 and 0.001) were synthesized by high pressure and high temperature method (HPHT). Thermoelectric properties of PbTe 1−x I x are investigated in the range of 300–600 K. The carrier concentration of PbTe prepared by HPHT is more sensitive to I content compared to that of the PbTe 1−x I x sample prepared by other methods. The resistivities and the absolute values of Seebeck coefficients for PbTe 1−x I x increase while the thermal conductivities decrease with increasing temperature. A large power factor of 39.1 μW/(cmK 2 ) at room temperature is obtained with the carrier concentration of 9.7 × 10 18 cm −3 , which is much higher than that of Sb and Bi doped PbTe with the same synthesizing conditions. The high power factor is attributed to the high Hall mobility and large effective mass. The maximum figure-of-merit, ∼0.71 @ 600 K, is obtained for the samples with the carrier concentration of 9.7 × 10 18 cm −3 . [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Polycrystalline BiCuSeO oxides are prepared by solid-state reaction followed by pressureless sintering (PLS) and high pressure sintering (HPS) methods. Both the experimental results and the density functional theory calculations indicate that the crystal defect concentrations of BiCuSeO can be reduced under the effect of high pressure. By comparing with the PLS sample, a larger power factor and a lower thermal conductivity can be obtained for the HPS sample. The maximum figure of merit ZT∼0.4 @ 800 K was obtained for the HPS sample, which is about 3 times higher than the PLS sample. These results indicate that the effect of high pressure is beneficial to modifying the microstructure and improving the thermoelectric performance of BiCuSeO oxyselenide. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Thermoelectric material, Ag $_{1-}\textit{x}$ Pb $_{\textit{m}}$ SbTe $_{\textit{m}+2}$ ( x = 0·2, m = 10), have been successfully prepared by high pressure method. The pressure-dependent electrical transport and thermoelectric properties of Ag Pb SbTe were studied at room temperature. Electrical resistivity and Seebeck coefficient decreases with an increase of synthetic pressure. Thermal conductivities are nearly constant when the pressure is lower than 4 GPa. The carrier concentrations of Ag Pb SbTe were tuned by more than a factor of 100 through changing of synthetic pressure. These results indicate that high pressure technique provides a viable and controllable way of tuning the electrical transport properties for AgPb $_{\textit{m}}$ SbTe $_{\textit{m} + 2}$. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]