A conceptional approach to materials for resistivity switching and thermoelectrics

Recently silver(I)-(poly)chalcogenides have received special interest in energy conversion materials because of their thermoelectric and resistivity switching properties. In order to understand these features, a new topological principle has been developed, which is an useful tool to plan new synthesis strategies and to vary functional properties. It has been shown that anion substitution is powerful tool to tune the physical properties in terms of a thermoelectric performance optimization. Herein we report on the recently introduced substance class of silver(I)-(poly)chalcogenidehalides and the well-established class of silver(I)-chalcogenidehalides. We focus our report on the electrochemical behaviour of all known silver-(poly)telluridehalides Ag10Te4Br3, Ag23Te12Br, Ag20Te10BrI,Ag5Te2Cl and selected substituted phases.

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► Silver(I)-polychalcogenide halides are effective phonon scatterer due to attractive interactions.
► Low dimensional units are responsible for the tuning of the electronic structure.
► Thermopower and thermoelectric performance can be manipulated by such interactions.