Silver telluride (Ag
2Te) is a chemical compound, a
telluride of
silver
Silver is a chemical element with the symbol Ag (from the Latin ', derived from the Proto-Indo-European ''h₂erǵ'': "shiny" or "white") and atomic number 47. A soft, white, lustrous transition metal, it exhibits the highest electrical ...
, also known as disilver telluride or silver(I) telluride. It forms a
monoclinic
In crystallography, the monoclinic crystal system is one of the seven crystal systems. A crystal system is described by three vectors. In the monoclinic system, the crystal is described by vectors of unequal lengths, as in the orthorhombic s ...
crystal. In a wider sense, ''silver telluride'' can be used to denote AgTe (silver(II) telluride, a
metastable
In chemistry and physics, metastability denotes an intermediate energetic state within a dynamical system other than the system's state of least energy.
A ball resting in a hollow on a slope is a simple example of metastability. If the ball i ...
compound) or Ag
5Te
3.
Silver(I) telluride occurs naturally as the mineral
hessite, whereas silver(II) telluride is known as
empressite.
Silver telluride is a
semiconductor
A semiconductor is a material which has an electrical conductivity value falling between that of a conductor, such as copper, and an insulator, such as glass. Its resistivity falls as its temperature rises; metals behave in the opposite way. ...
which can be doped both n-type and p-type. Stoichiometric Ag
2Te has n-type conductivity. On heating silver is lost from the material.
Non-stoichiometric
In chemistry, non-stoichiometric compounds are chemical compounds, almost always solid inorganic compounds, having elemental composition whose proportions cannot be represented by a ratio of small natural numbers (i.e. an empirical formula); m ...
silver telluride has shown
extraordinary magnetoresistance.
References
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See also
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Hessite
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Empressite
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Sylvanite
Related materials
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Silver selenide
Silver selenide (Ag2Se) is the reaction product formed when selenium toning analog silver gelatine photo papers in photographic print toning. The selenium toner contains sodium selenite (Na2SeO3) as one of its active ingredients, which is the sour ...
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Silver sulfide
Silver compounds
Tellurides
Semiconductor materials
Non-stoichiometric compounds
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