Thermoelectric properties of Ag2Te prepared by one-step hot-pressing method

•Pure phase Ag2Te samples are prepared by one-step hot pressing (OS-HP) method.•Effects of hot-pressing conditions on sample properties are investigated.•673 K-20 sample at 550 K shows the highest value of ZT = 0.72. In this work, a series of Ag2Te samples were successfully prepared by the one-step hot-pressing method (OS-HP). The results showed that the microstructure and thermoelectric properties of the samples were greatly affected by temperature and pressure. X-ray diffraction revealed that pure phase samples of Ag2Te can be obtained by OS-HP with a temperature of 673 K and pressure of 10 ∼ 20 MPa in 2 h. The 673K-20 sample illustrated the largest ZT values owing to the relatively high Seebeck coefficient and low thermal conductivity. Overall, the OS-HP with appropriate temperature and pressure could serve as a route to efficiently prepare Ag2Te thermoelectric materials.