Electrical and thermal transport properties of AgIn5Te8

• Electrical and thermal properties of AgIn5Te8 are anisotropic.
• AgIn5Te8 owns intrinsically low thermal conductivity.
• Thermal conductivity of AgIn5Te8 shows phonon dominant conduction behavior.
• AgIn5Te8 is promising for thermoelectric applications.

AgIn5Te8 was synthesized by melting reaction method, the electrical and thermal transport properties have been evaluated along the directions parallel and perpendicular to the ingot growth direction. Both electrical and thermal transport properties show the anisotropic characteristics. The electrical and thermal conductivities along the perpendicular direction are higher than that of parallel one. The large band gap of about 1.0 eV determines a low electrical conductivity. The T−1 dependence of diffusivity for AgIn5Te8 suggests a phonon dominant transport behavior, consistent with the insulating character of the electrical transport properties. AgIn5Te8 owns intrinsically low thermal conductivity, which decreases with increasing temperature, from 1.1 W m−1 K−1 and 0.95 W m−1 K−1 at room temperature to 0.5 W m−1 K−1 and 0.4 W m−1 K−1 at 873 K for AgIn5Te8 along perpendicular and parallel directions, respectively. This low thermal conductivity for AgIn5Te8 demonstrates this system could be promising for thermoelectric applications by improving electrical transport properties through tuning carrier concentrations.