Considering wastage of two-third of the world's energy consumption in the form of waste heat, the thermoelectric (TE) technology has emerged out as an environmentally friendly and promising energy conversion technology for extracting electrical energy from waste heat. One of the largest obstacles that impede large-scale applications of TE materials is their low conversion efficiencies. Lead telluride stands out as an outstanding thermoelectric material for power generation applications in the mid-temperature range due to its appropriate intrinsic properties. The last decade has witnessed an exceptional development in the TE properties of lead telluride material system, and the maximum figure of merit (zT) has already surpassed a practical criterion of 2 consistently and significantly. This article gives a review of status of current research in the lead telluride alloy material system and the underlying successful strategies to optimize the TE performance. The article outlines diverse strategies like band engineering, nanostructuring, designing all scale hierarchical architectures, synergistic effects, and their outcomes in the form of superior TE performance. Summarizing the review, we emphasize that synergistic effects should be exploited to maximum to boost the TE performance further. In the concluding part, a roadmap for future strategies is proposed, for further enhancement in thermoelectric performance.

考虑到以废热的形式浪费了世界三分之二的能源消耗，热电（TE）技术已成为一种环保且前景广阔的能量转换技术，可以从废热中提取电能。阻碍TE材料大规模应用的最大障碍之一是其转换效率低。碲化铅由于其适当的固有特性而在中温范围的发电应用中脱颖而出，是一种出色的热电材料。过去十年见证了碲化铅材料系统的TE特性的非凡发展，以及最高品质因数（zT）已经持续且显着地超过了2的实际标准。本文概述了碲化铅合金材料系统中的最新研究现状以及优化TE性能的潜在成功策略。本文概述了各种策略，例如波段工程，纳米结构，设计所有规模的分层体系结构，协同效应以及以优异的TE性能形式产生的结果。总结总结，我们强调应该最大程度地发挥协同效应，以进一步提高TE性能。在最后部分，提出了未来策略的路线图，以进一步提高热电性能。