Under the guidance of professor Qiao Guanjun, the paper entitled "Unexpected High-Temperature Stability of beta-Zn4Sb3 Opens the Door to Enhanced Thermoelectric Performance" authored by Lin Jianping, coauthored by professor Li Ju and professor Wang Zhao from the Research Institute of Advanced Ceramics of the National Key Laboratory of Strength of Metal Materials was published on line on Journal of the American Chemical Society.

In the paper, the authors use plasma activated sintering (PAS) technology and successfully synthesize and prepare single-phase and compact thermoelectric materials -Zn4Sb3, find for the first time the change law of the fine structure of materials and thermoelectric performance in broad temperature range by a combination of high-energy XRD structure refining, HRTEM observation and molecule dynamics stimulation and explain the mechanism of glass-like low heat conductance and excellent thermoelectric performance. It is found that the material reenters stable condition at 565K but it can restore completely at moderate temperature because of the defects caused by decomposition. The research breaks the traditional view that the material is easy to be decomposed and unstable and provides theoretical basis for the actual application of -Zn4Sb3. The paper reviewers comment, "The work provided a clear picture on how the chemical bonds vary and Zn elements migrate with temperature, both of which are very useful to interpret the phase stability and phase change."

The research was founded by the National Natural Science Foundation and National "973"project.

Visit http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/ja410605f for more information on the paper.