| 1. |
- Bertini, L, et al.
(författare)
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Nanostructured Co1-xNixSb3 skutterudites : Synthesis, thermoelectric properties, and theoretical modeling
- 2003
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Ingår i: Journal of Applied Physics. - : AIP Publishing. - 0021-8979 .- 1089-7550. ; 93:1, s. 438-447
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Nanostructured skutterudite Co1-xNixSb3 has been synthesized by chemical alloying with Ni substitution for Co up to 27.5 at. %. High concentration of grain boundaries provided by nanostructuring is expected to lower the thermal conductivity of thermoelectric materials and could thus increase their thermoelectric dimensionless figure-of-merit ZT. Material preparation comprises two key stages, coprecipitation of the precursor, and thermal processing to produce the skutterudite. By modeling the chemistry of the metal ions in aqueous solution, optimum coprecipitation conditions were achieved. The precipitated precursor consists of a solid solution of the different intermediate compounds, and exhibits high reactivity. Calcination and reduction of the precursor resulted in the alloying of these elements and in the formation of skutterudite at a temperature as low as 723-773 K. Unfilled CoSb3 skutterudites were prepared by chemical precipitation from aqueous solutions to achieve powders with a very small grain size (similar to40 nm). Compacted samples were produced from this powder by uniaxial pressing under various conditions. Thermal conductivity, electrical resistivity and Seebeck coefficient of the resulting compacts were measured in a temperature range from 150 to 575 K. Measurement procedures were standardized for absolute accuracy and reproducibility between the DLR, Cologne and NEDO, Cardiff Laboratories. It was found that the thermal conductivity can be decreased by almost an order of magnitude at the highest concentration of grain boundaries compared to highly annealed CoSb3. Scanning Seebeck microthermoprobe examination, facilitated spatially resolved measurement of Seebeck coefficient S, providing information on samples' homogeneity and on its effect on local S. Indications on the formation of an additional Ni containing phase were found. The electronic structure of Ni-doped skutterudites has been investigated by means of fully periodic density functional theory calculations and a topological analysis of the resulting electron densities. Ni substitution for Co doubles the electronic charge transfer from the pnicogen ring to the metal frame and fills the region of the CoSb3 band gap with occupied states, thus explaining the increase of electrical conductivity observed experimentally. The effect of the Ni substitution on the thermal conductivity is analyzed. The computed changes of the cell parameter with rising Ni content differ with those found by x-ray powder diffraction, thereby suggesting that the structural hypothesis of Ni replacing Co in the cubic frame of the skutterudite is only approximate or possibly incorrect.
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| 2. |
- Toprak, Muhammet S., et al.
(författare)
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The impact of nanostructuring on the thermal conductivity of thermoelectric CoSb3
- 2004
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Ingår i: Advanced Functional Materials. - : Wiley. - 1616-301X .- 1616-3028. ; 14:12, s. 1189-1196
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The high concentration of grain boundaries provided by nanostructuring is expected to lower the thermal conductivity of thermoelectric materials, which favors an increase in their thermoelectric figure-of-merit, ZT. A novel chemical alloying method has been used for the synthesis of nanoengineered-skutterudite CoSb3. The CoSb3 powders were annealed for different durations to obtain a set of samples with different particle sizes. The samples were then compacted into pellets by uniaxial pressing under various conditions and used for the thermoelectric characterization. The transport properties were investigated by measuring the Seebeck coefficient and the electrical and thermal conductivities in the temperature range 300 K to 650 K. A substantial reduction in the thermal conductivity of CoSb3 was observed with decreasing grain size in the nanometer region. For an average grain size of 140 nm, the thermal conductivity was reduced by almost an order of magnitude compared to that of a single crystalline or highly annealed polycrystalline material. The highest ZT value obtained was 0.17 at 611 K for a sample with an average grain size of 220 nm. The observed decrease in the thermal conductivity with decreasing grain size is quantified using a model that combines the macroscopic effective medium approaches with the concept of the Kapitza resistance. The compacted samples exhibit Kapitza resistances typical of semiconductors and comparable to those of Si-Ge alloys.
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| 3. |
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| 4. |
- Christensen, M, et al.
(författare)
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Structural study of Fe doped and Ni substituted thermoelectric skutterudites by combined synchrotron and neutron powder diffraction and ab initio theory
- 2004
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Ingår i: Journal of Applied Physics. - : AIP Publishing. - 0021-8979 .- 1089-7550. ; 96:6, s. 3148-3157
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- We present neutron and synchrotron powder-diffraction investigations as well as ab initio calculations to elucidate delicate structural features in doped skutterudites. Samples with assumed Fe doping were investigated (FeyCo4Sb12, y=0.4, 0.8, 1.0, and 1.6), as well as samples with formal Ni substitution (Co4-xNixSb12, x=0, 0.4, 0.8, and 1.2). The present study serves as a case story for the determination of fine structural details of thermoelectric skutterudites by diffraction methods in combination with ab initio calculations. We illustrate the problem of fluorescence in the conventional x-ray powder diffraction on the Fe-doped samples by a comparison with the neutron powder-diffraction data. On the series of the Ni-substituted samples, the neutron powder-diffraction data were collected to investigate the exact sitting of the Ni. The sample with the highest Ni substitution (Co2.8Ni1.2Sb12) was also used for high resolution, high-energy synchrotron powder diffraction measurements. These revealed that the sample consists of two skutterudite phases. A complete description of the Ni-substituted samples was obtained in tandem with ab initio calculations, which show that the system contains a Ni-rich (Co0.38Ni3.62Sb12) and a Ni-poor (Co3.76Ni0.24Sb12)) skutterudite phases.
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