Advances in thermoelectric AgBiSe2: Properties, strategies, and future challenges

Abstract

Thermoelectric materials are attracting considerable attention to alleviate the global energy crisis by enabling the direct conversion of heat into electricity. As a class of I–V–VI2 semiconductors, AgBiSe2 is expected to be the potential thermoelectric material to replace conventional PbTe-based compounds due to its non-toxic and abundant nature of its constituent elements. This review article summarizes the fundamental properties of AgBiSe2, thermoelectric properties, the effect of different dopants on its transport properties and entropy engineering for cubic phase stabilization with the detailed description of related techniques used to analyze the properties of AgBiSe2. The current thermoelectric figure-of-merit and approaches to further improve performance and operational stability are also discussed.