Thermal and Electronic Transport Properties of the Half-Heusler Phase ScNiSb

oleh: Karol Synoradzki, Kamil Ciesielski, Igor Veremchuk, Horst Borrmann, Przemysław Skokowski, Damian Szymański, Yuri Grin, Dariusz Kaczorowski

Format: Article
Diterbitkan: MDPI AG 2019-05-01

Deskripsi

Thermoelectric properties of the half-Heusler phase ScNiSb (space group <i>F</i><inline-formula> <math display="inline"> <semantics> <mover accent="true"> <mn>4</mn> <mo>&#175;</mo> </mover> </semantics> </math> </inline-formula>3<i>m</i>) were studied on a polycrystalline single-phase sample obtained by arc-melting and spark-plasma-sintering techniques. Measurements of the thermopower, electrical resistivity, and thermal conductivity were performed in the wide temperature range 2&#8722;950 K. The material appeared as a <i>p</i>-type conductor, with a fairly large, positive Seebeck coefficient of about 240 &#956;V K<sup>&#8722;1</sup> near 450 K. Nevertheless, the measured electrical resistivity values were relatively high (83 &#956;&#937;m at 350 K), resulting in a rather small magnitude of the power factor (less than 1 &#215; 10<sup>&#8722;3</sup> W m<sup>&#8722;1</sup> K<sup>&#8722;2</sup>) in the temperature range examined. Furthermore, the thermal conductivity was high, with a local minimum of about 6 W m<sup>&#8722;1</sup> K<sup>&#8722;1</sup> occurring near 600 K. As a result, the dimensionless thermoelectric figure of merit showed a maximum of 0.1 at 810 K. This work suggests that ScNiSb could be a promising base compound for obtaining thermoelectric materials for energy conversion at high temperatures.