Skutterudite Unicouple Characterization for Energy Harvesting Applications

Muto, Andrew; Yang, Jian; Poudel, Bed; Ren, Zhifeng; Chen, Gang

doi:10.1002/aenm.201200503

Title: Skutterudite Unicouple Characterization for Energy Harvesting Applications

Journal Article · Mon Sep 24 00:00:00 EDT 2012 · Advanced Energy Materials

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1002/aenm.201200503· OSTI ID:1381944

Muto, Andrew ^[1]; Yang, Jian ^[2]; Poudel, Bed ^[2]; Ren, Zhifeng ^[3]; Chen, Gang ^[3]

Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (United States)
GMZ Energy, Waltham, MA (United States)
Boston College, Chestnut Hill, MA (United States); Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (United States)

Skutterudites are enticing thermoelectric materials due to their high figure of merit, ZT, and good thermomechanical properties. Our 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. CoSi₂ is used as the electrode for the n-type skutterudite (Yb_0.35Co₄Sb₁₂) and Co2Si for the p-type skutterudite (NdFe_3.5Co_0.5Sb₁₂). A technique is developed to measure the ZT_eff of individual legs and the efficiency 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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Research Organization:: Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES)

Grant/Contract Number:: SC0001299; FG02-09ER46577

OSTI ID:: 1381944

Journal Information:: Advanced Energy Materials, Vol. 3, Issue 2; Related Information: S3TEC partners with Massachusetts Institute of Technology (lead); Boston College; Oak Ridge National Laboratory; Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute; ISSN 1614-6832

Publisher:: WileyCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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Cited by: 74 works

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Thermoelectric Devices: A Review of Devices, Architectures, and Contact Optimization He, Ran; Schierning, Gabi; Nielsch, Kornelius Advanced Materials Technologies, Vol. 3, Issue 4 https://doi.org/10.1002/admt.201700256	journal	December 2017
Enhancement of Thermoelectric Performance of n-Type PbSe by Cr Doping with Optimized Carrier Concentration Zhang, Qian; Chere, Eyob Kebede; McEnaney, Kenneth Advanced Energy Materials, Vol. 5, Issue 8 https://doi.org/10.1002/aenm.201401977	journal	January 2015
A TiAlCu Metallization for ‘n’ Type $$\hbox {CoSb}_x$$ CoSb x Skutterudites with Improved Performance for High-Temperature Energy Harvesting Applications Rao, Ashwin; Bosak, Gregg; Joshi, Binay Journal of Electronic Materials, Vol. 46, Issue 4 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11664-017-5306-2	journal	February 2017
Topology Optimization of Segmented Thermoelectric Generators Lundgaard, Christian; Sigmund, Ole; Bjørk, Rasmus Journal of Electronic Materials, Vol. 47, Issue 12 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11664-018-6606-x	journal	September 2018
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