Thermoelectric Properties of Zintl Phase YbMg₂Sb₂

Abstract

The goal of waste\nheat recovery using high-performance thermoelectric\nmaterials has promoted the development of promising materials with\nenhanced performance. Here, YbMg₂Sb₂ is studied\nas one such candidate p-type material with high thermoelectric performance\npredicted through theoretical calculations and verified by experimental\nstudies. By Na doping at the Yb site, carrier concentration tuning\nand phonon scattering intensification are achieved simultaneously.\nThe Na-doped samples hence show significantly higher <i>ZT</i> values compared to the undoped one. Our work sheds light on the\ndesign of high-performance thermoelectric materials and demonstrates\nthat YbMg₂Sb₂-based Zintl compounds are promising\nthermoelectric materials.