Enhanced thermoelectric performance of CuGaTe2 by Gd-doping and Te incorporation

Abstract: Gd-doped compounds CuGa1-xGdxTe2 (0x0.02) incorporated with tellurium nanoparticles are synthesized by fusion method. Their thermoelectric properties are investigated in the temperature range of 300-800K. The results indicate that the synergistic effect of Gd-doping and Te incorporation remarkably enhances the thermoelectric performance of CuGaTe2. Specially, the thermal conductivity  of the specimen CuGa0.98Gd0.02Te2/0.7vol.%Te reduces to 0.45 Wm-1K-1 at 684K, which is ~74% smaller than that of pure CuGaTe2 (=1.76 Wm-1K-1 at 684K) due to the incorporation of nanostructure Te. The thermoelectric figure of merit value (ZT) reaches 0.75 at 737K for the specimen CuGa0.99Gd0.01Te2/0.7vol.%Te, which is ~115% larger than that of pure CuGaTe2.