Enhanced thermoelectric performance of dual-element-filled skutterudites BaxCeyCo4Sb12

✍ Scribed by S.Q. Bai; Y.Z. Pei; L.D. Chen; W.Q. Zhang; X.Y. Zhao; J. Yang

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 2009
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 571 KB
• Volume: 57
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1359-6454
• DOI: 10.1016/j.actamat.2009.03.018

✦ Synopsis

Single-phase polycrystalline dual-element-filled skutterudites Ba x Ce y Co 4 Sb 12 (0 < x < 0.4, 0 < y < 0.1) are synthesized by the meltingquenching-annealing and spark plasma sintering methods. The electrical conductivity, Seebeck coefficient, thermal conductivity and lowtemperature Hall data of these compounds are reported. Our results suggest that there is essentially no difference in electrical transport properties between the dual-element-filled Ba x Ce y Co 4 Sb 12 and single-element-filled Ba y Co 4 Sb 12 systems. The Ba-Ce co-filling is more effective in lattice thermal conductivity reduction than Ba single filling in the temperature range of 300-850 K. Very low lattice thermal conductivity values less than 2.0 W m À1 K À1 are obtained at room temperature. Consequently, enhanced thermoelectric figure of merits (ZT) for these dual-element-filled CoSb 3 skutterudites are achieved at elevated temperatures, in particular ZT = 1.26 at 850 K for Ba 0.18 Ce 0.05 Co 4 Sb 12.02 .