High temperature thermoelectric properties of rock-salt structure PbS

• We predict high temperature ZT values as high as 1.8 for optimized PbS for both p-type and n-type.
• We find large thermopowers in a wide temperature range above 800 K.
• We find a nearly symmetric (between p-type and n-type) transport behavior.
• We find that the high temperature band gap of PbS may be as large or larger than 0.66 eV.

We present an analysis of the high temperature transport properties of rock-salt structure PbS, a sister compound to the better studied lead chalcogenides PbSe and PbTe. We find thermopower magnitudes exceeding 200μV/K in a wide doping range for temperatures of 800 K and above. Based on these calculations, and an analysis of recent experimental work, we find that this material has a potential for high thermoelectric performance. We also find favorable mechanical properties, based on an analysis of published data.