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Thermoelectric properties of La-filled CoSb3 skutterudites

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Abstract

La-filled skutterudites La z Co4Sb12 (z = 0, 0.1, 0.2, 0.3, 0.4) were prepared by encapsulated melting and hot pressing. The filling effects of La on the transport and the thermoelectric properties of skutterudites were examined. All specimens were transformed to skutterudite phases through subsequent annealing. The intrinsic CoSb3 had a high positive Seebeck coefficient, but a thermoelectric figure of merit, ZT, of lower than 0.1 due to its low electrical conductivity and high thermal conductivity. However, La-filled CoSb3 showed degenerate semiconductor behavior and high electrical conductivity, and exhibited n-type conduction because of the excess electrons donated from the La fillers. The Seebeck coefficient increased and then decreased slightly with increasing temperature, and it decreased with increasing La filling content due to increased carrier concentration. The thermal conductivity was reduced significantly by La filling, mainly due to the decrease in the lattice thermal conductivity. ZT = 0.35 was obtained in the temperature range from 623 to 823 K for La0.2Co4Sb12.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Energy and Environmental Materials Division, Korea Institute of Ceramic Engineering and Technology, Seoul, 153-801, Korea

    Kwan-Ho Park, Soonil Lee & Won-Seon Seo

  2. Defense Material and Evaluation Technology Directorate, Agency for Defense Development, Daejeon, 305-600, Korea

    Seungsu Baek

  3. Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Korea National University of Transportation, Chungju, 380-702, Korea

    Dong-Kil Shin & Il-Ho Kim

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  1. Kwan-Ho Park
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  2. Soonil Lee
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  3. Won-Seon Seo
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  4. Seungsu Baek
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  5. Dong-Kil Shin
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  6. Il-Ho Kim
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Correspondence to Il-Ho Kim.

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Park, KH., Lee, S., Seo, WS. et al. Thermoelectric properties of La-filled CoSb3 skutterudites. Journal of the Korean Physical Society 64, 1004–1008 (2014). https://doi.org/10.3938/jkps.64.1004

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