Skutterudites, a most promising group of thermoelectric materials

Rogl, Gerda; Rogl, P.

doi:10.1016/j.cogsc.2017.02.006

Cited by 156 publications

(111 citation statements)

References 78 publications

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“…Sb-based filled skutterudite [1][2][3] alloys (RTM 4 Sb 12 , R = rare earth element, TM = Co, Fe, etc.) are among the most promising medium temperature thermoelectric materials [4][5][6][7][8], which can directly convert heat to electricity, and vice versa. The efficiency of the thermoelectric material is governed by the dimensionless figure of merit ZT = S 2 σT/κ, where S, σ, T and κ are the Seebeck coefficient, electrical conductivity, absolute temperature and thermal conductivity, respectively.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Microstructure Evolution and Mechanical Properties of Melt Spun Skutterudite-based Thermoelectric Materials

Geng

Zhang

et al. 2020

Materials

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The rapid solidification of melt spinning has been widely used in the fabrication of high-performance skutterudite thermoelectric materials. However, the microstructure formation mechanism of the spun ribbon and its effects on the mechanical properties are still unclear. Here, we report the microstructure evolution and mechanical properties of La–Fe–Co–Sb skutterudite alloys fabricated by both long-term annealing and melt-spinning, followed by sintering approaches. It was found that the skutterudite phase nucleated directly from the under-cooled melt and grew into submicron dendrites during the melt-spinning process. Upon heating, the spun ribbons started to form nanoscale La-rich and La-poor skutterudite phases through spinodal decomposition at temperatures as low as 473 K. The coexistence of the micron-scale grain size, the submicron-scale dendrite segregation and the nanoscale spinodal decomposition leads to high thermoelectric performance and mechanical strength. The maximum three-point bending strength of the melt spinning sample was about 195 MPa, which was 70% higher than that of the annealed sample.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Microstructure Evolution and Mechanical Properties of Melt Spun Skutterudite-based Thermoelectric Materials

Geng

Zhang

et al. 2020

Materials

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“…Following the idea behind the PGEC (Phonon Glass Electron Crystal) concept [6], which states that a good thermoelectric material should ideally conduct heat like a glass and electricity like a crystal, the experimental approach aiming at filling structural cavities of the host structure with ions of the proper size is commonly pursued in order to insert scattering centers able to depress phonon thermal conductivity without virtually affecting electrical conductivity [7]. Some examples of such currently studied materials are Heusler [8,9] and half-Heusler phases [10][11][12][13], clathrates [14,15], and filled skutterudites [16][17][18][19][20][21].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Interfacial Reactivity of the Filled Skutterudite Smy(FexNi1−x)4Sb12 in Contact with Liquid In-Based Alloys and Sn

Latronico

Valenza

Carlini

et al. 2020

Metals

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The study of the wettability of thermoelectric materials, as well as the search for the most proper brazing alloys, is of the maximum importance to get one step closer to the realization of a thermoelectric device. In this work, a wettability study of the filled skutterudite Smy(FexNi1−x)4Sb12 by Sn and In-based alloys is presented. Samples, having both p- and n- characters were prepared by the conventional melting-quenching-annealing technique and subsequently densified by spark plasma sintering (SPS). Afterward, wettability tests were performed by the sessile drop method at 773 K for 20 min. Scanning electron microscopy-energy dispersive spectroscopy (SEM-EDS) analyses performed on the cross-section of the solidified drops suggest quite a complicated scenario due to the coexistence and the interaction of a large number of different elements in each analyzed system. Indeed, the indication of a strong reaction of In-based alloys with skutterudite, accompanied by the formation of the InSb intermetallic compound, is clear; on the contrary, Sn exhibits a milder reactivity, and thus, a more promising behavior, being its appreciable wettability, whilst coupled to a limited reactivity.

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“…4 In addition, the presence of a high-degeneracy conduction band minimum close in energy to the conduction band minima at the Brillouin zone center has been invoked to rationalize the large S, via the concept of band convergence. 5,6 Perhaps the most distinguishing feature of skutterudite materials is their ability to host "rattler" atoms R (such as alkali, alkaline earth, actinide, rare earth, and halogen elements) in the large crystallographic voids, 7 which serves a dual purpose with respect to thermoelectricity. First, it enhances the power factor (σS 2 ) via electronic doping.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Electronic Structure and Phase Stability of Yb-Filled CoSb₃ Skutterudite Thermoelectrics from First-Principles

Isaacs

Wolverton

2019

Chem. Mater.

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Filling the large voids in the crystal structure of the skutterudite CoSb 3 with rattler atoms R provides an avenue for both increasing carrier concentration and disrupting lattice heat transport, leading to impressive thermoelectric performance. While the influence of R on the lattice dynamics of skutterudite materials has been well studied, the phase stability of Rfilled skutterudite materials and the influence of the presence and ordering of R on the electronic structure remain unclear. Here, focusing on the Yb-filled skutterudite Yb x Co 4 Sb 12 , we employ first-principles methods to compute the phase stability and electronic structure. Ybfilled CoSb 3 exhibits (1) a mild tendency for phase separation into Yb-rich and Yb-poor regions and (2) a strong tendency for chemical decomposition into Co-Sb and Yb-Sb binaries (i.e., CoSb 3 , CoSb 2 , and YbSb 2 ). We find that, at reasonable synthesis temperatures, configurational entropy stabilizes single-phase solid solutions with limited Yb solubility, in agreement with experiments. Filling CoSb 3 with Yb increases the band gap, enhances the carrier effective masses, and generates new low-energy "emergent" conduction band minima, which is distinct from the traditional band convergence picture of aligning the energies of existing band extrema. The explicit presence of R is necessary to achieve the emergent conduction band minima, though the rattler ordering does not strongly influence the electronic structure. The emergent conduction bands are spatially localized in the Yb-rich regions, unlike the delocalized electronic states at the Brillouin zone center that form the unfilled skutterudite band edges.1 arXiv:1904.07983v2 [cond-mat.mtrl-sci]

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Skutterudites, a most promising group of thermoelectric materials

Cited by 156 publications

References 78 publications

Microstructure Evolution and Mechanical Properties of Melt Spun Skutterudite-based Thermoelectric Materials

Microstructure Evolution and Mechanical Properties of Melt Spun Skutterudite-based Thermoelectric Materials

Interfacial Reactivity of the Filled Skutterudite Smy(FexNi1−x)4Sb12 in Contact with Liquid In-Based Alloys and Sn

Electronic Structure and Phase Stability of Yb-Filled CoSb₃ Skutterudite Thermoelectrics from First-Principles

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Skutterudites, a most promising group of thermoelectric materials

Cited by 156 publications

References 78 publications

Microstructure Evolution and Mechanical Properties of Melt Spun Skutterudite-based Thermoelectric Materials

Microstructure Evolution and Mechanical Properties of Melt Spun Skutterudite-based Thermoelectric Materials

Interfacial Reactivity of the Filled Skutterudite Smy(FexNi1−x)4Sb12 in Contact with Liquid In-Based Alloys and Sn

Electronic Structure and Phase Stability of Yb-Filled CoSb3 Skutterudite Thermoelectrics from First-Principles

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Electronic Structure and Phase Stability of Yb-Filled CoSb₃ Skutterudite Thermoelectrics from First-Principles