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At least 91 records · Page 5

Modeling of the Thermoelectric Properties of p-Type IrSb(sub 3)

IrSb(sub 3) is a compound of the skutterudite family of materials now being investigated at JPL. A combination of experimental and theoretical approaches has been recently applied at JPL to evaluate the potential of several thermoelectric materials such as n-type and p-type Si(sub 80) Ge(sub 20) alloys, n-type and p-type Bi(sub 2) Te(sub 3)-based alloys and p-type Ru(sub 2) Ge(sub 3) compound. The use of a comprehensive model for the thermal and electrical transport properties of a given material over its full temperature range of usefulness is a powerful tool for guiding experimental optimization of the composition, temperature and doping level as well as for predicting the maximum ZT value likely to be achieved.

skutterudite thermoelectric material thermoelectri↗

Thermoelectric Properties of Lanthanum Sulfide

Report describes measurement of Seebeck coefficient, electrical resistivity, thermal conductivity, and Hall effect in gamma-phase lanthanum sulfide with composition of La3-x S4. Results of study, part of search for high-temperature thermoelectric energy-conversion materials, indicate this sulfide behaves like extrinsic semiconductor over temperature range of 300 to 1,400 K, with degenerate carrier concentration controlled by stoichiometric ratio of La to S.

Wood, C.↗

Thermoelectric properties of hot pressed p-type SiGe alloys

This paper presents the results of measurements of electrical resistivity, Seebeck coefficient, thermal conductivity, as well as Hall carrier concentration, and mobility, for hot pressed SiGe 80 at. pct Si-20 at. pct Ge (SiGe) thermoelectric materials containing 0.24-3.0 at. pct boron. The carrier concentration was varied by annealing and quenching at different high temperatures. Figure-of-merit, Z, was found to be 0.60 +/- 0.03 x 10 exp -3/K over a carrier concentration range from 1.8- 3.5 x 10 exp -20/cu cm. This result is very encouraging from a production standpoint, since the dopant concentration is not critical.

Bajgar, Clara↗

Preparation and Thermoelectric Properties of the Skutterudite-Related Phase Ru(0.5)Pd(0.5)Sb3

A new skutterudite phase Ru(0.5)Pd(0.5)Sb3 was prepared. This new phase adds to a large number of already known materials with the skutterudite structure which have shown good potential for thermoelectric applications. Single phase, polycrystalline samples were prepared and characterized by x-ray analysis, electron probe microanalysis, density, sound velocity, thermal-expansion coefficient, and differential thermal analysis measurements. Ru(0.5)Pd(0.5)Sb3 has a cubic lattice, space group Im3 (T(sup 5, sub h)), with a = 9.298 A and decomposes at about 920 K. The Seebeck coefficient, the electrical resistivity, the Hall effect, and the thermal conductivity were measured on hot-pressed samples over a wide range of temperatures. Preliminary results show that Ru(0.5)Pd(0.5)Sb3 behaves as a heavily doped semiconductor with an estimated band gap of about 0.6 eV. The lattice thermal conductivity of Ru(0.5)Pd(0.5)Sb3 is substantially lower than that of the binary isostructural compounds CoSb3 and IrSb3. The unusually low thermal conductivity might be explained by additional hole and charge transfer phonon scattering in this material. The potential of this material for thermoelectric applications is discussed.

Caillat, T.↗

Thermoelectric properties of lanthanum sulfide

The Seebeck coefficient, electrical resistivity, thermal conductivity, and Hall effect have been studied in gamma-phase La(3-x)S4(LaS/y/) for compositions with x in the range from 0.04 to 0.3 (y in the range from 1.35 to 1.48) in order to ascertain its suitability for high-temperature (300 to 1400 K) thermoelectric energy conversion. In this temperature and composition range the material behaves as an extrinsic semiconductor whose degenerate carrier concentration is controlled by the stoichiometric ratio of La to S. A maximum figure-of-merit (Z) of approximately 0.0005 per K at a composition x = 0.3, y = 1.48 (LaS/1.48/) was obtained.

Wood, C.↗

Thermoelectric properties of cerium monopnictides

Several cerium pnictides have been synthesized from the pure elements and hot pressed into test samples. Measurements of Seebeck coefficients and electrical resistivities were performed on these samples from room temperature to 1000 C. Cerium arsenide and cerium antimonide are n-type; cerium nitride changes from p-type to n-type conduction at 800 C. The materials are semimetals with resistivities below 1 mohm/cm. Cerium arsenide is the most favorable of the pnictides studied for high-temperature thermoelectric energy conversion, with an average power factor of 15 microW/cm K sq from 500 to 1000 C.

Danielson, L. R.↗

High-Quality SnSe 2 Single Crystals: Electronic and Thermoelectric Properties

In this work, high-quality SnSe 2 single crystals were successfully synthesized using a temperature gradient method. N-type characteristics and strong anisotropic transport properties of SnSe 2 single crystals were exhibited between the ab plane and the c-axis. At 673 K, the power factor (PF) value along the ab plane is 3.43 μW cm -1 K -2 , while it is 0.92 μW cm -1 K -2 along the c-axis. The ratio between thermal conductivities along the ab plane (κ ab ) and c-axis (κ c ) is on the order of 7.6 at 300 K, while this value is about 5.6 at 673 K. The thermoelectric figure of merit (ZT) in the c-axis (0.15) is higher than that (0.1) along the ab plane, according to the ultralow out-of-plane thermal conductivity. The electronic band structure results, which were examined by angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES) predicted the potential of improving the thermoelectric performance of SnSe 2 single crystals by electron doping.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

The highly disordered Zintl phase Ca 10 GdCdSb 9 – New example of a p-type semiconductor with remarkable thermoelectric properties

Ca 10 GdCdSb 9 is a new Zintl phase with a large unit cell volume (~2500 Å 3 ) and a very complex, disordered structure, which can drive the realization of ultralow thermal conductivity in this material. The measured Seebeck coefficient, α, for single-crystalline Ca 10 GdCdSb 9 approaches 350 μV/K at 600 K. The experimentally determinedelectrical resistivity of Ca 10 GdCdSb 9 is very low, leading to a remarkably high-power factor PF of 23.2 μW/cm·K 2 at 460 K. Furthermore, the extraordinary PF value in this material, higher than those of the currently known state-of-the-art materials within the same temperature range, suggests that the Ca 10 RECdSb 9 material system (RE = rare earth metal) could serve as a viable playground to harnessing new efficient thermoelectric generators.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Investigating the Role of Vacancies on the Thermoelectric Properties of EuCuSb‐Eu 2 ZnSb 2 Alloys

Abstract AMX compounds with the ZrBeSi structure tolerate a vacancy concentration of up to 50 % on the M ‐site in the planar MX ‐layers. Here, we investigate the impact of vacancies on the thermal and electronic properties across the full EuCu 1− x Zn 0.5 x Sb solid solution. The transition from a fully‐occupied honeycomb layer (EuCuSb) to one with a quarter of the atoms missing (EuZn 0.5 Sb) leads to non‐linear bond expansion in the honeycomb layer, increasing atomic displacement parameters on the M and Sb‐sites, and significant lattice softening. This, combined with a rapid increase in point defect scattering, causes the lattice thermal conductivity to decrease from 3 to 0.5 W mK −1 at 300 K. The effect of vacancies on the electronic properties is more nuanced; we see a small increase in effective mass, large increase in band gap, and decrease in carrier concentration. Ultimately, the maximum zT increases from 0.09 to 0.7 as we go from EuCuSb to EuZn 0.5 Sb.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Combination of Counterion Size and Doping Concentration Determines the Electronic and Thermoelectric Properties of Semiconducting Polymers

In both chemical and electrochemical doping of organic semiconductors (OSCs), a counterion, either from the electrolyte or ionized dopant, balances the charge introduced to the OSC. Despite the large influence of this counterion on OSC optical and electronic response, there remains substantial debate on how a fundamental parameter, ion size, impacts these properties. Here, this work resolves much of this debate by accounting for two doping regimes. In the low-doping regime, the Coulomb binding energies between charge carriers on the OSC and the counterions are significant, and larger counterions lead to decreased Coulomb interactions, more delocalized charge carriers, and higher electrical conductivities. In the high-doping regime, the Coulomb binding energies become negligible due to the increased dielectric constant of the films and a smoothing of the energy landscape; thereby, the electrical conductivities depend primarily on the extent of morphological disorder in the OSC. Moreover, in regioregular poly(3-hexylthiophene), rr-P3HT, smaller counterions lead to greater bipolaron concentrations in the low-doping regime due to the increased Coulomb interactions. Emphasizing the impact of the counterion size, it is shown that larger counterions can lead to increased thermoelectric power factors for rr-P3HT.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Structural and Thermoelectric Properties of Black Arsenic–Phosphorus

Here, we report the structural and temperature dependent transport properties of As x P 1-x (x = 0, 0.2, 0.5, 0.83, 1) alloys. It is observed that black phosphorous (BP)-related phonon modes in the alloy samples are red-shifted with increasing arsenic concentration, while black arsenic-related modes in these samples are blue-shifted with increasing phosphorus concertation. As the arsenic concentration, x increases from 0 to 1, the 4-probe resistance of the As x P 1-x alloys is found to decrease by more than 3 orders of magnitude. The transport studies reveal that samples with the highest arsenic concentration (x = 1 and 0.83) show metallic behavior in the temperature dependence of resistance with a small thermopower at room temperature with an anomalous temperature dependence. In contrast, the samples with high phosphorus concentration (x = 0, 0.2, and 0.5) show very large thermopower values at room temperature reaching a value as high as 803 μV/k for x = 0.2. The temperature dependence of the thermopower of these samples can be well described by the variable range hopping (VRH) mechanism in two-dimensions (2-d), S ~ T 1/3 . Similarly, their 4-probe resistance (R) values can be fitted with 2-d VRH mechanism, R ~ exp(T -1/3 ).

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Investigating the Role of Vacancies on the Thermoelectric Properties of EuCuSb‐Eu 2 ZnSb 2 Alloys

Abstract AMX compounds with the ZrBeSi structure tolerate a vacancy concentration of up to 50 % on the M ‐site in the planar MX ‐layers. Here, we investigate the impact of vacancies on the thermal and electronic properties across the full EuCu 1− x Zn 0.5 x Sb solid solution. The transition from a fully‐occupied honeycomb layer (EuCuSb) to one with a quarter of the atoms missing (EuZn 0.5 Sb) leads to non‐linear bond expansion in the honeycomb layer, increasing atomic displacement parameters on the M and Sb‐sites, and significant lattice softening. This, combined with a rapid increase in point defect scattering, causes the lattice thermal conductivity to decrease from 3 to 0.5 W mK −1 at 300 K. The effect of vacancies on the electronic properties is more nuanced; we see a small increase in effective mass, large increase in band gap, and decrease in carrier concentration. Ultimately, the maximum zT increases from 0.09 to 0.7 as we go from EuCuSb to EuZn 0.5 Sb.

Chanakian, Sevan↗