Rapid One-Step Synthesis and Compaction of High-Performance n-Type Mg₃ Sb₂ Thermoelectrics

n-type Mg₃ Sb₂ -based compounds have emerged as a promising class of low-cost thermoelectric materials due to their extraordinary performance at low and intermediate temperatures. However, so far, high thermoelectric performance has merely been reported in n-type Mg₃ Sb₂ -Mg₃ Bi₂ alloys with a large amount of Bi. Moreover, current synthesis methods of n-type Mg₃ Sb₂ bulk thermoelectrics involve multi-step processes that are time- and energy-consuming. Herein, we report a fast and straightforward approach to fabricate n-type Mg₃ Sb₂ thermoelectrics using spark plasma sintering, which combines the synthesis and compaction in one step. Using this method, we achieve a high thermoelectric figure of merit zT of about 0.4-1.5 at 300-725 K in n-type (Sc, Te)-co-doped Mg₃ Sb₂ without alloying with Mg₃ Bi₂ . In comparison with the currently reported synthesis methods, the complexity, process time, and cost of our method are significantly reduced. This work demonstrates a simple, low-cost route for the potential large-scale production of n-type Mg₃ Sb₂ thermoelectrics.