Crystal structure and transport properties of CuPdBiS<inf>3</inf>

Abstract

© 2019 Elsevier B.V. The CuPdBiS3 compound was synthetized from individual elements by solid-state chemical reactions and structurally characterized by single-crystal X-ray diffraction. It crystalizes in the (Bi,Sb)CuNiS3 structure-type with the P212121 space group, unit-cell parameters a = 4.8847(8), b = 7.5885(11), c = 12.8646(10), V = 476.86(11) and Z = 4. The structure of CuPdBiS3 compound forms a three-dimensional framework composed of corner-sharing [CuS4] deformed tetrahedra and [PdS4] squares. The Bi atoms form [BiS4] pyramids and fill the channels running along the a-axis. There are no short Pd-Pd, Cu-Pd or Cu-Cu interactions (<3.4 Å). Arrhenius behaviour of the electrical conductivity was observed. Considering high free carrier concertation and very low Hall mobility, charge transport is very likely realized via thermally-activated hopping processes. Despite high values of the Seebeck coefficient and rather low thermal conductivity values, the thermoelectric figure-of-merit reaches its maximal value ZT = 0.023 at 675 K only.