Silver as a highly effective bonding layer for lead telluride thermoelectric modules assembled by rapid hot-pressing

•Ag serves as a promising bonding material for PbTe operating at THot ⩽ 400 °C.•The Ag foils reacted vigorously with PbTe to form Ag2Te at 550 °C.•The Seebeck coefficient of Ag/PbTe/Ag is slightly higher than that of pure PbTe.•A cost-effective way for long-term operations at high temperature.

We use the rapid hot-pressing method to bond Ag foil onto pure PbTe in order to assess its effectiveness as a bonding layer material for thermoelectric module applications. Scanning electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction are employed to examine intermetallic compound formation and microstructure evolution during isothermal aging at 400 °C and 550 °C. We find that Ag is a promising bonding material for PbTe modules operating at THot ⩽ 400 °C. Additionally, our approach highlights a highly effective and inexpensive method to metallize PbTe prior to module assembly.