ICT2014 Abstracts

Cu₂SnS₃ belongs to the ternary copper tin sulfide Cu-Sn-S semiconductor family, which have attracted great attention because of their outstanding optical-thermal-mechanical properties and potential applications as proper band-gap semiconductors in the- field of solar cell thin films. Cu₂SnS₃ is also found frequently as a secondary phase in synthesized Cu₂ZnSnS₄ and Cu₂ZnSnSe₄ samples and it is highly expected to be a good thermoelectric material by a first-principles investigation. In this work, the crystal structure, thermoelectric performance and electronic transport properties of bulk Cu₂SnS₃ synthesized by mechanical alloying (MA) and spark plasma sintering (SPS) were investigated. It revealed that the carrier concentration was able to be optimized only by a proper sintering procedure. The figure of merit (ZT) of Cu₂Sn_0.9In_0.1S₃ exceeds 0.6, as twice much as the undoped one, which is probably caused by the alteration of band structure leading to an enhancement of the electrical conductivity as well as the thermal power.