ABSTRACT
Zintl phases have enjoyed a rich history of scientific study since their initial investigation by Edward Zintl and have recently gained interest for use in thermoelectric (TE) devices for power generation because of their intrinsic "electron–crystal, phonon–glass" nature. This chapter provides an overview of what is known of the structure-property relationships of this particular layered Zintl phases is presented. The fundamental structural and chemical bonding characteristic, and band structures, which underpin both electronic and phonon transport properties, will be discussed. Researchers at the Panasonic Corporation discovered high TE performance in n-type Mg3 (Antimony (Sb), Bismuth (Bi)) 2, which was firstly reported in the 35th International Conference on Thermoelectrics in Wuhan, China. Both theory and experiment prove that the cation in Zintl phases provide regions that can be alloyed or precisely doped with weakly affected high carrier mobility and disrupt phonon transport through alloy scattering.
