Abstract
The discovery of silver chalcogenides ductile semiconductors with high room-temperature plasticity holds significant promise for the development of bendable thermoelectric and electronic devices. However, the atomic-scale origins of their plasticity, ranging from dislocation slip to sublattice amorphization, remain diverse and material-specific. Here, we report a distinct deformation mechanism in Ag2Te through stress-driven and ionic-hop-mediated domain rotation. By in-situ scanning/transmission electron microscopy (S/TEM), we directly observe the hopping of Ag ions to adjacent vacancies stabilizes the deformed Te-sublattice and facilitates a coordinated ~92.2° lattice rotation that accommodates substantial plastic strain. This mechanism, which preserves long-range crystallinity, contrasts with both traditional dislocation-mediated plasticity and stress-induced amorphization pathways. Combined with its excellent thermoelectric performance (ZT value of ~0.67) at room temperature, Ag2Te emerges as a promising flexible electronic material.
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Acknowledgements
This work was supported by the National Key R&D Program of China (2024YFE0209300) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (52573254, 52150710537).
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J.W. designed the experiments. K.L. did the DFT calculation under the guidance of X.S. (Xianli Su). L.L. and L.Y. performed material syntheses under the guidance of X.S. (Xianli Su), D.Y. and X.T. Y.L. done the EBSD test and analyses under the guidance of X.S. (Xiahan Sang). A.G. performed microstructure characterizations, and sample measurements and prepared the samples for in-situ TEM and STEM and performed the in-situ mechanics and electrical experiments under the guidance of J.W., and the help of Q.Z. and Z.W. A.G. collected the data, provided explanations under the guidance of J.W. and wrote the manuscript. J.W. revised the manuscript. All authors contributed helpful discussions to this work.
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Guo, A., Liu, K., Wang, Z. et al. Room-temperature plasticity in Ag2Te induced by Ag ions hopping. Nat Commun (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-69298-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-69298-z
