High thermoelectric properties for Sn-doped AgSbSe2

• Thermoelectric properties of lightly Sn-doped compounds AgSb1−xSnxSe2 at 300–673 K are investigated.
• The peak ZT of 1.21 for AgSb0.99Sn0.01Se2 is the highest value obtained for AgSbSe2-based materials.
• This suggests that the slight Sn doping is an effective approach to improve ZT of AgSbSe2.

Thermoelectric properties of lightly Sn-doped compounds AgSb1−xSnxSe2 (x = 0, 0.005, 0.010, 0.02 and 0.025) (at 300–673 K) were investigated. The results indicate the optimized enhanced power factor and low thermal conductivity result in a high thermoelectric figure of merit, ZT, of 1.21 and 1.15 at 660 K in 1 mol% and 2 mol% Sn doped AgSbSe2, which are 363% and 349% as large as that of the pristine sample, respectively. The peak ZT of 1.21 for AgSb0.99Sn0.01Se2 is the highest value obtained for AgSbSe2-based materials. This suggests that the slight Sn doping is an effective approach to improve ZT of AgSbSe2.