A Rapid Methodology to Obtain Silver Selenide thin Films with Highly Enhanced Thermoelectric Performance

Abstract Metal chalcogenides have been extensively studied for thermoelectric applications. Among other metal chalcogenides, silver selenide (Ag 2 Se) is considered one of the most promising n‐type semiconducting materials for thermoelectric applications due to its low band gap value, Seebeck coefficient, and superior power factor ( PF ) rendered at room temperature. However, one of the main drawbacks of using Ag 2 Se as a thermoelectric material on a large scale is the time‐consuming physical methods to obtain them, and the need for high vacuum synthesis conditions as well as high‐cost. On the contrary, the electrodeposition route offers a fast, low‐cost, reliable, eco‐friendly, and reproducible synthesis methodology to obtain β‐Ag 2 Se thin films, avoiding the use of high vacuum, which is especially important for scaling up to industrial processing levels. In this study, a facile and rapid strategy is reported to obtain β‐Ag 2 Se thin films with controlled thickness using an electrodeposition technique. As‐electrodeposited β‐Ag 2 Se film with a thickness of 740 nm delivered a PF = 5.59 µW cm −1 K 2 , while an 880 nm β‐Ag 2 Se film annealed at 210 °C exhibits a higher PF = 11.69 µW cm −1 K 2 . The results demonstrate a rapid preparation of high purity β‐Ag 2 Se thin film with superior thermoelectric performance, provides potential opportunities in the development of efficient thermoelectric devices.