Thermoelectric properties of ternary copper thallium telluride: CuTl/sub 9/Te/sub 5/

Abstract

We prepared high-density polycrystalline samples of Cu/sub 2/Te, Tl/sub 2/Te, and CuTl/sub 9/Te/sub 5/, and measured the thermoelectric properties. The thermal conductivity of CuTl/sub 9/Te/sub 5/ is very low, 0.49 Wm/sup -1/K/sup -1/ at room temperature. CuTl/sub 9/Te/sub 5/ indicates the relatively high figure of merit ZT because of its very low thermal conductivity. The highest ZT value is 0.38 obtained at 590 K for CuTl/sub 9/Te/sub 5/.