Thermal stability and electrical transport properties of β-Zn4Sb3 single crystal prepared by Sn-flux method

In this work, β-Zn4Sb3 single crystals with space group R3¯c were prepared by Sn-flux method according to the stoichiometric ratios of Zn4+x(0–0.8)Sb3Sn3. thermogravimetric-differential thermal analysis (TG-DTA) shows that there has no weight loss untill temperature reaches to melting point of 821 K. All crystals behave characteristic of p-type conduction and the carrier densities are independent on the initial composition. Comparing with β-Zn4Sb3 polycrystalline sample, the carrier mobility of the present single crystals are increased. The crystals with X>0 possess higher electrical conductivity, and the highest power factor of 1.18×10−3 Wm−1 K−2 is obtained at 585 K for the sample with X=0.8.