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Phonon drag effect in nanocomposite FeSb2

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 March 2013

Mani Pokharel ,
Huaizhou Zhao ,
Kevin Lukas ,
Zhifeng Ren ,
Cyril Opeil  and
Bogdan Mihaila
Mani Pokharel*
Affiliation:
Department of Physics, Boston College, Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts 02467
Huaizhou Zhao
Affiliation:
Department of Physics, Boston College, Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts 02467
Kevin Lukas
Affiliation:
Department of Physics, Boston College, Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts 02467
Zhifeng Ren
Affiliation:
Department of Physics, Boston College, Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts 02467
Cyril Opeil
Affiliation:
Department of Physics, Boston College, Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts 02467
Bogdan Mihaila
Affiliation:
Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico 87545
*
Address all correspondence to Mani Pokharel atpokharem@bc.edu
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Abstract

We study the temperature dependence of thermoelectric transport properties of four FeSb2 nanocomposite samples with different grain sizes. The comparison of the single crystals and nanocomposites of varying grain sizes indicates the presence of substantial phonon drag effects in this system contributing to a large Seebeck coefficient at low temperature. As the grain size decreases, the increased phonon scattering at the grain boundaries leads to a suppression of the phonon-drag effect, resulting in a much smaller peak value of the Seebeck coefficient in the nanostructured bulk materials. As a consequence, the ZT values are not improved significantly even though the thermal conductivity is drastically reduced.

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Type
Research Letters
Information
MRS Communications , Volume 3 , Issue 1 , March 2013 , pp. 31 - 36
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 2013

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