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High temperature thermoelectric properties of BaxYbyFe3CoSb12 p-type skutterudites

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Abstract

Double-filled high Fe content skutterudites, BaxYbyFe3CoSb12 (x + y = 1), were synthesized to investigate their high temperature transport properties. Both their phase and stoichiometry were characterized by powder x-ray diffraction and energy dispersive spectroscopy. The Seebeck coefficient, S, and electrical resistivity, ρ, increase with increasing temperature for all specimens over the entire measured temperature range. The thermal conductivity for the two low Ba content specimens decreases with increasing temperature up to 550 K at which point it increases with temperature due to bipolar diffusion. Bipolar diffusion becomes negligible with increasing Ba content. Due to this low bipolar diffusion, the ZT values of the higher Ba content specimens increase linearly with temperature, with the highest ZT value obtained for Ba0.9Yb0.1Fe3CoSb12.

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This work was supported by the National Science Foundation Grant No. DMR-1400957. This work in Dr. Tritt’s laboratory acknowledges, in part, the support of a KAUST Faculty Initiated Collaboration grant and also some funding from Clemson University.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physics, University of South Florida, Tampa, Florida, 33620, USA

    Yongkwan Dong & George S. Nolas

  2. Department of Physics and Astronomy, Kinard Laboratory, Clemson University, Clemson, South Carolina, 29634, USA

    Xiaoyu Zeng & Terry M. Tritt

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  1. Yongkwan Dong
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  2. George S. Nolas
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  3. Xiaoyu Zeng
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  4. Terry M. Tritt
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Correspondence to George S. Nolas.

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This author was an editor of this focus issue during the review and decision stage. For the JMR policy on review and publication of manuscripts authored by editors, please refer to http://www.mrs.org/jmr-editor-manuscripts/

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Dong, Y., Nolas, G.S., Zeng, X. et al. High temperature thermoelectric properties of BaxYbyFe3CoSb12 p-type skutterudites. Journal of Materials Research 30, 2558–2563 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1557/jmr.2015.156

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