TY - JOUR
T1 - Skutterudite unicouple characterization for energy harvesting applications
AU - Muto, Andrew
AU - Yang, Jian
AU - Poudel, Bed
AU - Ren, Zhifeng
AU - Chen, Gang
N1 - Copyright:
Copyright 2013 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 2013/2
Y1 - 2013/2
N2 - Skutterudites are promising thermoelectric materials because of their high figure of merit, ZT , and good thermomechanical properties. This work reports the effective figure of merit, ZT eff , and the efficiency of skutterudite legs and a unicouple working under a large temperature difference. The p- and n-type legs are fabricated with electrodes sintered directly to the skutterudite during a hot pressing process. CoSi2is used as the electrode for the n-type skutterudite (Yb0.35Co4Sb12) and Co 2Si for the p-type skutterudite (NdFe3.5Co 0.5Sb12). A technique is developed to measure the ZT eff of individual legs and the effi- ciency of a unicouple. An ZT eff of 0.74 is determined for the n-type legs operating between 52 and 595°C, and an ZT eff of 0.51 for the p-type legs operating between 77 and 600°C. The efficiency of the p-n unicouple is determined to be 9.1% operating between - 70 and 550°C.
AB - Skutterudites are promising thermoelectric materials because of their high figure of merit, ZT , and good thermomechanical properties. This work reports the effective figure of merit, ZT eff , and the efficiency of skutterudite legs and a unicouple working under a large temperature difference. The p- and n-type legs are fabricated with electrodes sintered directly to the skutterudite during a hot pressing process. CoSi2is used as the electrode for the n-type skutterudite (Yb0.35Co4Sb12) and Co 2Si for the p-type skutterudite (NdFe3.5Co 0.5Sb12). A technique is developed to measure the ZT eff of individual legs and the effi- ciency of a unicouple. An ZT eff of 0.74 is determined for the n-type legs operating between 52 and 595°C, and an ZT eff of 0.51 for the p-type legs operating between 77 and 600°C. The efficiency of the p-n unicouple is determined to be 9.1% operating between - 70 and 550°C.
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U2 - 10.1002/aenm.201200503
DO - 10.1002/aenm.201200503
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84876513750
VL - 3
SP - 245
EP - 251
JO - Advanced Energy Materials
JF - Advanced Energy Materials
SN - 1614-6832
IS - 2
ER -