Fabricating the Sb₂Te₃(SnTe)_n compound has been proved as an effective way to suppress the lattice thermal conductivity and optimize the band structure simultaneously for enhancing the thermoelectric (TE) performance of SnTe. In view of the ultra-low carrier mobility resulted from the strong vacancy-electron scattering in SnTe–Sb₂Te₃ alloy, an appropriate weakening of vacancy scattering to pursue ideal compromise among carrier mobility (μ), concentration (n), and density-of-state effective mass (m*) is of great significance for more effective performance promotion. Herein, we propose an approach of cation-site compensation to finely manipulate the transport properties in Sb₂Te₃(SnTe)₁₀ alloy. We, for the first time in the SnTe community, contrastively investigated diverse cation-site fillers, including homogeneous atoms (Sn, Pb) and heterogeneous atoms (Cd, Mn) for maintaining high μ with a large m*, which indicated that Mn compensation exhibits the most appealing effect on synergistically modulating the three electrical transport parameters, μ, n and m*. Our study archives a satisfied electrical transport property in the optimized Sb₂Te₃(SnMn_0.08Te)₁₀ specimen. The atomic structural analysis discovered the coherent Mn-rich nanostructures which will enrich the phonon scattering mechanism while having minimal effect on electron transport. Benefiting from the finely manipulated electron and phonon transports, a peak ZT of ∼1.3 at 773 K and an average ZT of ∼0.78 (300–823 K) are achieved in the Sb₂Te₃(SnMn_0·.08Te)₁₀ alloy. This work provides a feasible strategy to realize the sharply enhanced TE performance in medium-temperature TE system with abundant vacancies.

制备 Sb ₂ Te ₃ (SnTe) _n化合物已被证明是抑制晶格热导率并同时优化能带结构以提高 SnTe 热电 (TE) 性能的有效途径。_{针对SnTe–Sb 2} Te ₃合金中强空位电子散射导致的超低载流子迁移率，适当削弱空位散射以在载流子迁移率( μ )、浓度( n )和密度之间寻求理想的折衷-状态有效质量 ( m*)对于更有效的绩效提升具有重要意义。在此，我们提出了一种阳离子位点补偿方法来精细控制 Sb ₂ Te ₃ (SnTe) ₁₀合金中的传输特性。我们首次在 SnTe 社区中对比研究了不同的阳离子位点填料，包括同质原子（Sn、Pb）和异质原子（Cd、Mn）以保持高 μ 和大 m*，这表明Mn补偿在协同调节三个电传输参数μ、n和m*方面表现出最吸引人的效果. 我们的研究在优化的 Sb ₂ Te ₃ (SnMn _{0 . 08} Te) ₁₀样品中获得了令人满意的电传输特性。原子结构分析发现了相干的富锰纳米结构，这将丰富声子散射机制，同时对电子传输的影响最小。受益于精细操纵的电子和声子传输，在 Sb ₂ Te ₃ (SnMn _{0 · . 08} Te) ₁₀中实现了773 K 处的峰值ZT ~ 1.3 和 ~ 0.78 (300–823 K) 的平均ZT合金。这项工作提供了一种可行的策略，可以在具有大量空位的中温 TE 系统中实现 TE 性能的急剧增强。