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Effects of disordered structure on thermoelectric properties of LaCeFe3CoSb12 nanocomposites

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 April 2012

Pengxian Lu ,
Manman Lu ,
Lingbo Qu  and
Xing Hu
Pengxian Lu*
Affiliation:
College of Materials Science and Engineering, Henan University of Technology, Zhengzhou 450001, China
Manman Lu
Affiliation:
Senior 24, Zhengzhou Foreign Language School, Zhengzhou 450000, China
Lingbo Qu
Affiliation:
College of Materials Science and Engineering, Henan University of Technology, Zhengzhou 450001, China
Xing Hu
Affiliation:
School of Physical Engineering, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou 450052, China
*
a)Address all correspondence to this author. e-mail: pengxian_lu@haut.edu.cn
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Abstract

To improve the thermoelectric properties of LaCeFe3CoSb12 skutterudite materials, the LaCeFe3CoSb12 nanopowders of disordered structure were fabricated through a laser melting and quenching process and then were hot pressed into bulk pellets with the coexistence of ordered and disordered structures by mixing the disordered powders with the raw LaCeFe3CoSb12 crystalline materials. The results suggest that the introduced disordered structure can increase Seebeck coefficient from 57 to 179 μV/K while reduce thermal conductivity from 3.1 to 1.5 W/(m·K), although electrical conductivity can be decreased from 98,000 to 43,000 S/m, and consequently, figure of merit can be enhanced from 0.11 to 0.90 at 773 K. Therefore, fabricating a material with the coexistence of disordered and ordered structures can be considered as an effective way to obtain a high figure of merit, and this strategy can be also applied to other thermoelectric alloys.

Keywords

Disordered structureNano structureLaser processThermoelectric
Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Materials Research , Volume 27 , Issue 11 , 14 June 2012 , pp. 1518 - 1521
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 2012

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