Publication date: 14 August 2026
Source: Materials Science Forum Vol. 1199
Author(s): Masaru Aniya
In recent years, thermoelectric materials based on noble metal chalcogenides are attracting considerable interest due to their high figure of merit. On the other hand, it is well known that noble metal chalcogenides exhibit high ionic conductivity. By looking the reported experimental data, there are wide evidences that the thermoelectric and high ionic conduction behavior are interrelated. In the present study, the viscoelastic theory of superionic conductors which was used previously to study the properties of Ag2+δSe is reconsidered. The model predicts that the composition dependence of the sound velocity and diffusion coefficient near the stoichiometric composition exhibit a minimum and maximum respectively, when the value of the Thomas-Fermi screening parameter is decreased. Such a behavior provides an insight to exploit the alloying effect in the development of thermoelectric materials. In addition to the results from the viscoelastic theory, the electronic transport properties provided by the bond fluctuation model of superionic conductors is also discussed shortly.
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