Solubility study of Yb in n-type skutterudites YbxCo4Sb12 and their enhanced thermoelectric properties

J. Yang, Q. Hao, H. Wang, Y. C. Lan, Q. Y. He, A. Minnich, D. Z. Wang, J. A. Harriman, V. M. Varki, M. S. Dresselhaus, G. Chen, and Z. F. Ren
Phys. Rev. B 80, 115329 – Published 29 September 2009

Abstract

The solubility of Yb in YbxCo4Sb12 was reported to be 0.19 in bulk skutterudites made by melting and slow cooling method. Surprisingly we increased x close to 0.5 by a special sample preparation method: ball mill and hot press. We show that a higher Yb concentration not only increases the power factor due to a higher electron concentration but also reduces the thermal conductivity k because of stronger phonon scattering. In this way, we have achieved a dimensionless thermoelectric figure of merit ZT of about 1.2 at 550°C in Yb0.35Co4Sb12.

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  • Received 18 May 2009

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.80.115329

©2009 American Physical Society

Authors & Affiliations

J. Yang1, Q. Hao2, H. Wang1, Y. C. Lan1, Q. Y. He1,3, A. Minnich2, D. Z. Wang1, J. A. Harriman1, V. M. Varki1, M. S. Dresselhaus4, G. Chen2,*,†, and Z. F. Ren1,*,‡

  • 1Department of Physics, Boston College, Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts 02467, USA
  • 2Department of Mechanical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA
  • 3School of Physics and Telecommunication Engineering, South China Normal University, Guangzhou 510631, People’s Republic of China
  • 4Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and Department of Physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA

  • *Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
  • gchen2@mit.edu
  • renzh@bc.edu

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Vol. 80, Iss. 11 — 15 September 2009

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