Electrical Properties of n-type Co-doped Fe-Si Alloy

摘要

The effect of Co additive on the electrical properties of Fe-Si alloys prepared by a RF inductive furnace was investigated. The electrical conductivity and Seebeck coefficient were measured as a function of the temperature under an Ar atmosphere to evaluate their applicability to thermoelectric energy conversion. The electrical conductivity of the specimens increased as the temperature increased, showing typical semiconducting behavior. The electrical conductivity of Co-doped specimens was higher than that of undoped specimens and increased slightly as the amount of Co additive increased. This is most likely due to the difference in the carrier concentration and the amount of residual metallic phase s-FeSi (The s-FeSi was detected in spite of an annealing treatment of 100 h at 830 deg C). Additionally, metallic conduction increased slightly as the amount of Co additive increased. On the other hand, Co-doped specimens showed a lower Seebeck coefficient due to the metallic phase. The power factor of Co-doped specimens was higher than that of undoped specimens. This would be affected more by the electrical conductivity compared to the Seebeck coefficient.