High-purity La3-xTe4 Material with Superior Thermoelectric Performance Synthesized via Te-vapor Transport and Solid-State Diffusion.

Abstract

La_3-xTe₄ is a very promising high-temperature candidate applied in next-generation Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generators (RTGs). Conventional synthesis of such materials is based on the mechanochemical method, which makes the sample difficult to purify due to the high-energy ball milling. In this report, a novel synthetic method is developed, which utilizes Te-vapor transport and solid-phase diffusion to efficiently produce the RE_3-xTe₄ phases (RE = La, Ce, Pr, Nd). Notably, this method obviates the requirement for high-energy ball-milling instruments, conventionally indispensable in the mechanochemical syntheses. For as-synthesized La_2.74Te₄ material, a high figure of merit of 1.5 is achieved at 1073 K, owning to the reduced electronic thermal conductivity with metal impurities well eliminated.