scholarly journals An enhanced power factor via multilayer growth of Ag-doped skutterudite CoSb3 thin films

2018 ◽  
Vol 5 (6) ◽  
pp. 1409-1414 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhuang-Hao Zheng ◽  
Meng Wei ◽  
Jing-Ting Luo ◽  
Fu Li ◽  
Guang-Xing Liang ◽  
...  

The Seebeck coefficient and electrical conductivity of the CoSb3 thin films are enhanced after Ag doping, leading to substantial enhancement of the power factor.

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yinong Yin ◽  
Ashutosh Tiwari

AbstractWe are reporting the effect of thickness on the Seebeck coefficient, electrical conductivity and power factor of Ca3Co4O9 thin films grown on single-crystal Sapphire (0001) substrate. Pulsed laser deposition (PLD) technique was employed to deposit Ca3Co4O9 films with precisely controlled thickness values ranging from 15 to 75 nm. Structural characterization performed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and atomic force microscopy (AFM) showed that the growth of Ca3Co4O9 on Sapphire (0001) follows the island growth-mode. It was observed that in-plane grain sizes decrease from 126 to 31 nm as the thickness of the films decreases from 75 to 15 nm. The thermoelectric power measurements showed an overall increase in the value of the Seebeck coefficient as the films’ thickness decreased. The above increase in the Seebeck coefficient was accompanied with a simultaneous decrease in the electrical conductivity of the thinner films due to enhanced scattering of the charge carriers at the grain boundaries. Because of the competing mechanisms of the thickness dependence of Seebeck coefficient and electrical conductivity, the power factor of the films showed a non-monotonous functional dependence on thickness. The films with the intermediate thickness (60 nm) showed the highest power factor (~ 0.27 mW/m-K2 at 720 K).


2020 ◽  
Vol 22 (4) ◽  
pp. 385-390
Author(s):  
Anh Tuan Thanh Pham ◽  
Cuong Nhat Le ◽  
Dung Van Hoang ◽  
Truong Huu Nguyen ◽  
Phuong Thanh Ngoc Vo ◽  
...  

Introduction: Magnesium tin silicide (MgSiSn) is known as a good-thermoelectric-performance, safe and cost-efficient alloy material. The goal of this work is to design a magnetron co-sputtering configuration for depositing alloy thin films from three independent metal targets including magnesium (Mg), silicon (Si) and tin (Sn). Methods: By this solution, the elemental composition of the MgSiSn thin films can be effectively controlled through changing sputtering power of the individual magnetron. The actual values of elemental composition in the as-deposited films were verified by using energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy. The as-deposited thin films were investigated carefully by using the X-ray diffraction to recognize crystalline structure characteristics. Most importantly, typically thermoelectric parameters including Seebeck coefficient, electrical conductivity and power factor were indicated as functions of temperature. Results: The XRD analysis exhibits cubic anti-fluorite-type structure characteristic of the MgSiSn films; however, the presence of segregated Mg phase is still observed. The testing results for the representative MgSiSn thin film with good adherence show the power factor of PF ~15×10-3 W/mK2, as a result of Seebeck coefficient of S ~132 µV/K and electrical conductivity of σ ~9000 S/cm, at 373 K. At higher temperature than 473 K, the semiconducting behavior of the films tends to transform from p-type to n-type. Conclusion: The three-target co-sputtering configuration shows the possibility of successfully preparing alloy MgSiSn thin films with good adherence on Si substrate. Furthermore, the testing result suggests that the as-deposited MgSiSn thin films have some potential thermoelectric characteristics, which can be improved more significantly.  


2020 ◽  
Vol 46 (7) ◽  
pp. 9646-9655 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arslan Ashfaq ◽  
Jolly Jacon ◽  
A. Ali ◽  
Khurram Mehboob ◽  
K. Mahmood ◽  
...  

2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yijie Li ◽  
Nguyen Van Toan ◽  
Zhuqing Wang ◽  
Khairul Fadzli Bin Samat ◽  
Takahito Ono

AbstractPorous silicon (Si) is a low thermal conductivity material, which has high potential for thermoelectric devices. However, low output performance of porous Si hinders the development of thermoelectric performance due to low electrical conductivity. The large contact resistance from nonlinear contact between porous Si and metal is one reason for the reduction of electrical conductivity. In this paper, p- and n-type porous Si were formed on Si substrate by metal-assisted chemical etching. To decrease contact resistance, p- and n-type spin on dopants are employed to dope an impurity element into p- and n-type porous Si surface, respectively. Compared to the Si substrate with undoped porous samples, ohmic contact can be obtained, and the electrical conductivity of doped p- and n-type porous Si can be improved to 1160 and 1390 S/m, respectively. Compared with the Si substrate, the special contact resistances for the doped p- and n-type porous Si layer decreases to 1.35 and 1.16 mΩ/cm2, respectively, by increasing the carrier concentration. However, the increase of the carrier concentration induces the decline of the Seebeck coefficient for p- and n-type Si substrates with doped porous Si samples to 491 and 480 μV/K, respectively. Power factor is related to the Seebeck coefficient and electrical conductivity of thermoelectric material, which is one vital factor that evaluates its output performance. Therefore, even though the Seebeck coefficient values of Si substrates with doped porous Si samples decrease, the doped porous Si layer can improve the power factor compared to undoped samples due to the enhancement of electrical conductivity, which facilitates its development for thermoelectric application.


Energies ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (10) ◽  
pp. 2849 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yong Du ◽  
Haixia Li ◽  
Xuechen Jia ◽  
Yunchen Dou ◽  
Jiayue Xu ◽  
...  

Graphite/poly(3,4-ethyenedioxythiophene) (PEDOT) nanocomposites were prepared by an in-situ oxidative polymerization process. The electrical conductivity and Seebeck coefficient of the graphite/PEDOT nanocomposites with different content of graphite were measured in the temperature range from 300 K to 380 K. The results show that as the content of graphite increased from 0 to 37.2 wt %, the electrical conductivity of the nanocomposites increased sharply from 3.6 S/cm to 80.1 S/cm, while the Seebeck coefficient kept almost the same value (in the range between 12.0 μV/K to 15.1 μV/K) at 300 K, which lead to an increased power factor. The Seebeck coefficient of the nanocomposites increased from 300 K to 380 K, while the electrical conductivity did not substantially depend on the measurement temperature. As a result, a power factor of 3.2 μWm−1 K−2 at 380 K was obtained for the nanocomposites with 37.2 wt % graphite.


2019 ◽  
Vol 2019 ◽  
pp. 1-7 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pornsiri Wanarattikan ◽  
Piya Jitthammapirom ◽  
Rachsak Sakdanuphab ◽  
Aparporn Sakulkalavek

In this work, stoichiometric Sb2Te3 thin films with various thicknesses were deposited on a flexible substrate using RF magnetron sputtering. The grain size and thickness effects on the thermoelectric properties, such as the Seebeck coefficient (S), electrical conductivity (σ), power factor (PF), and thermal conductivity (k), were investigated. The results show that the grain size was directly related to film thickness. As the film thickness increased, the grain size also increased. The Seebeck coefficient and electrical conductivity corresponded to the grain size of the films. The mean free path of carriers increases as the grain size increases, resulting in a decrease in the Seebeck coefficient and increase in electrical conductivity. Electrical conductivity strongly affects the temperature dependence of PF which results in the highest value of 7.5 × 10−4 W/m·K2 at 250°C for film thickness thicker than 1 µm. In the thermal conductivity mechanism, film thickness affects the dominance of phonons or carriers. For film thicknesses less than 1 µm, the behaviour of the phonons is dominant, while both are dominant for film thicknesses greater than 1 µm. Control of the grain size and film thickness is thus critical for controlling the performance of Sb2Te3 thin films.


2020 ◽  
Vol 91 (10) ◽  
pp. 105111
Author(s):  
Bernhard Dörling ◽  
Osnat Zapata-Arteaga ◽  
Mariano Campoy-Quiles

2013 ◽  
Vol 2013 ◽  
pp. 1-6 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jyun-Min Lin ◽  
Ying-Chung Chen ◽  
Chi-Pi Lin

Bismuth telluride-based compounds are known to be the best thermoelectric materials within room temperature region, which exhibit potential applications in cooler or power generation. In this paper, thermal evaporation processes were adopted to fabricate the n-type Bi2Te3thin films on SiO2/Si substrates. The influence of thermal annealing on the microstructures and thermoelectric properties of Bi2Te3thin films was investigated in temperature range 100–250°C. The crystalline structures and morphologies were characterized by X-ray diffraction and field emission scanning electron microscope analyses. The Seebeck coefficients, electrical conductivity, and power factor were measured at room temperature. The experimental results showed that both the Seebeck coefficient and power factor were enhanced as the annealing temperature increased. When the annealing temperature increased to 250°C for 30 min, the Seebeck coefficient and power factor of n-type Bi2Te3-based thin films were found to be about −132.02 μV/K and 6.05 μW/cm·K2, respectively.


2010 ◽  
Vol 1267 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Chacha ◽  
S. Budak ◽  
Cydale Smith ◽  
Marcus Pugh ◽  
Kudus Ogbara ◽  
...  

AbstractThe performance of the thermoelectric materials and devices is shown by a dimensionless figure of merit, ZT = S2σT/K, where S is the Seebeck coefficient, σ is the electrical conductivity, T is the absolute temperature and K is the thermal conductivity. ZT can be increased by increasing S, increasing σ, or decreasing K. We have prepared 100 alternating multi-nano layer of SiO2/SiO2+Cu superlattice films using the ion beam assisted deposition (IBAD). The 5 MeV Si ions bombardments have been performed at the different fluences using the AAMU Pelletron ion beam accelerator to make quantum clusters in the multi-layer superlattice thin films to decrease the cross plane thermal conductivity increase the cross plane Seebeck coefficient and cross plane electrical conductivity. To characterize the thermoelectric thin films before and after Si ion bombardments we have measured the cross-plane Seebeck coefficient, the cross-plane electrical conductivity, and the cross-plane thermal conductivity for different fluences.


RSC Advances ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 1593-1599 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonna Hynynen ◽  
David Kiefer ◽  
Christian Müller

The crystallinity of P3HT strongly benefits the electrical conductivity but not Seebeck coefficient, leading to an increase in power factor by one order of magnitude.


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