Names
Other names
Altaite
Identifiers
ECHA InfoCard 100.013.862
Properties
PbTe
Molar mass 334.80 g/mol
Appearance gray cubic crystals.
Density 8.164 g/cm3
Melting point 924 °C (1,695 °F; 1,197 K)
insoluble
Band gap 0.25 eV (0 K)
0.32 eV (300 K)
Electron mobility 1600 cm2 V−1 s−1 (0 K)
6000 cm2 V−1 s−1 (300 K)
Structure
Halite (cubic), cF8
Fm3m, No. 225
a = 6.46 Angstroms
Octahedral (Pb2+)
Octahedral (Te2−)
Thermochemistry
50.5 J·mol-1·K-1
-70.7 kJ·mol-1
110.0 J·mol-1·K-1
Hazards
Safety data sheet External MSDS
Repr. Cat. 1/3
Harmful (Xn)
Dangerous for the environment (N)
R-phrases (outdated) R61, R20/22, R33, R62, R50/53
S-phrases (outdated) S53, S45, S60, S61
Flash point Non-flammable
Related compounds
Other anions
Other cations
Carbon monotelluride
Silicon monotelluride
Germanium telluride
Tin telluride
Related compounds
Thallium telluride
Bismuth telluride
Except where otherwise noted, data are given for materials in their standard state (at 25 °C [77 °F], 100 kPa).
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Infobox references

Lead telluride is a compound of lead and tellurium (PbTe). It crystallizes in the NaCl crystal structure with Pb atoms occupying the cation and Te forming the anionic lattice. It is a narrow gap semiconductor with a band gap of 0.32 eV.[4] It occurs naturally as the mineral altaite.

## Applications

PbTe has proven to be a very important intermediate thermoelectric material. The performance of thermoelectric materials can be evaluated by the figure of merit, ${\displaystyle ZT=S^{2}\sigma T/\kappa }$, in which ${\displaystyle S}$ is the Seebeck coefficient, ${\displaystyle \sigma }$ is the electrical conductivity and ${\displaystyle \kappa }$ is the thermal conductivity. In order to improve the thermoelectric performance of materials, the power factor (${\displaystyle S^{2}\sigma }$) needs to be maximized and the thermal conductivity needs to be minimized.[5]

The PbTe system can be optimized for power generation applications by improving the power factor via band engineering. It can be doped either n-type or p-type with appropriate dopants. Halogens are often used as n-type doping agents. PbCl2, PbBr2 and PbI2 are commonly used to produce donor centers. Other n-type doping agents such as Bi2Te3, TaTe2, MnTe2, will substitute for Pb and create uncharged vacant Pb-sites. These vacant sites are subsequently filled by atoms from the lead excess and the valence electrons of these vacant atoms will diffuse through crystal. Common p-type doping agents are Na2Te, K2Te and Ag2Te. They substitute for Te and create vacant uncharged Te sites. These sites are filled by Te atoms which are ionized to create additional positive holes.[6] With band gap engineering, the maximum zT of PbTe has been reported to be 0.8 - 1.0 at ~650K.

Collaborations at Northwestern University boosted the zT of PbTe by significantly reducing its thermal conductivity using 'all-scale hierarchical architecturing'.[7] With this approach, point defects, nanoscale precipitates and mesoscale grain boundaries are introduced as effective scattering centers for phonons with different mean free paths, without affecting charge carrier transport. By applying this method, the record value for zT of PbTe that has been achieved in Na doped PbTe-SrTe system is approximately 2.2.[8]

In addition, PbTe is also often alloyed with tin to make lead tin telluride, which is used as an infrared detector material.