Synthesis and thermoelectric characterizations of Pd and Se-doped skutterudite compound

摘要

AbstractIn the last several decades many researches are focused towards renewable energy sources. Among the variety of renewable energy sources the thermoelectric energy, which is generated by thermoelectric materials. Thermoelectric is one of the most promising sources of renewable energies. It’s based on the conversion of waste energy to a useful one. This work will focus on the enhancement of advanced thermoelectric materials CoSb3with a 0.2 fraction of Se and several different fractions of Pd (x = 0.2, 0.3, 0.4, 0.5) which prepared by hot pressing and characterized by X-ray. The samples were characterized by the measurement of the electrical and thermal conductivities as well as the Seebeck coefficient between room temperature and 900 K. The sample had n-type conductivity. The dimensionless thermoelectric figure of merit ZT increases with increasing temperature and reaches a maximum value of 1.096 at 873 K for Co3.5Sb11.8Pd0.5Se0.2composite.