Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-tf8b9 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-28T18:25:26.687Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Reliable measurements of the Seebeck coefficient on a commercial system

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 August 2015

Yintu Liu ,
Chenguang Fu ,
Hanhui Xie ,
Xinbing Zhao  and
Tiejun Zhu
Yintu Liu
Affiliation:
State Key Laboratory of Silicon Materials and Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, China
Chenguang Fu
Affiliation:
State Key Laboratory of Silicon Materials and Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, China
Hanhui Xie
Affiliation:
State Key Laboratory of Silicon Materials and Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, China
Xinbing Zhao
Affiliation:
State Key Laboratory of Silicon Materials and Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, China
Tiejun Zhu*
Affiliation:
State Key Laboratory of Silicon Materials and Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, China
*
a)Address all correspondence to this author. e-mail: [email protected]
Get access

Abstract

The Seebeck coefficient is an important parameter of thermoelectric materials, which is routinely measured by commercial or home-made equipment based on different methods. However, due to various temperature offsets in the measurement, the determination of temperature gradient can be inaccurate, leading to a large uncertainty in Seebeck coefficient. To elucidate the influence of the inaccurate temperature gradient on the determination of Seebeck coefficient, an error analysis has been performed on a commercial system. Several potential factors that may affect the establishment of temperature gradient were discussed in detail. A comparison between the single point method and the slope method was made to verify which is more accurate to calculate the Seebeck coefficient from the raw measurement data. It is suggested that the slope method is more preferable and the single point method can also be accurate enough when a relatively large temperature gradient is adopted.

Keywords

Seebeck coefficienterror analysistemperature gradient
Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Materials Research , Volume 30 , Issue 17: Focus Issue: Advances in Thermoelectric Materials II , 14 September 2015 , pp. 2670 - 2677
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 2015 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Tritt, T.M.: Holey and unholey semiconductors. Science 283(5403), 804 (1999).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Snyder, G.J. and Toberer, E.S.: Complex thermoelectric materials. Nat. Mater. 7(2), 105 (2008).CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wang, H., Pei, Y., LaLonde, A.D., and Snyder, G.J.: Heavily doped p-type PbSe with high thermoelectric performance: An alternative for PbTe. Adv. Mater. 23(11), 1366 (2011).CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wang, H., Pei, Y., LaLonde, A.D., and Snyder, G.J.: Weak electron-phonon coupling contributing to high thermoelectric performance in n-type PbSe. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. 109(25), 9705 (2012).CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Mackey, J., Dynys, F., and Sehirlioglu, A.: Uncertainty analysis for common Seebeck and electrical resistivity measurement systems. Rev. Sci. Instrum. 85(8), 085119 (2014).CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Borup, K.A., de Boor, J., Wang, H., Drymiotis, F., Gascoin, F., Shi, X., Chen, L., Fedorov, M.I., Müller, E., and Iversen, B.B.: Measuring thermoelectric transport properties of materials. Energy Environ. Sci. 8(2), 423 (2015). doi:10.1039/c0xx00000x.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zhou, Z. and Uher, C.: Apparatus for Seebeck coefficient and electrical resistivity measurements of bulk thermoelectric materials at high temperature. Rev. Sci. Instrum. 76(2), 023901 (2005).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wood, C., Zoltan, D., and Stapfer, G.: Measurement of Seebeck coefficient using a light pulse. Rev. Sci. Instrum. 56(5), 719 (1985).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Guan, A., Wang, H., Jin, H., Chu, W., Guo, Y., and Lu, G.: An experimental apparatus for simultaneously measuring Seebeck coefficient and electrical resistivity from 100 K to 600 K. Rev. Sci. Instrum. 84(4), 043903 (2013).CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Martin, J.: Apparatus for the high temperature measurement of the Seebeck coefficient in thermoelectric materials. Rev. Sci. Instrum. 83(6), 065101 (2012).CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Martin, J., Tritt, T., and Uher, C.: High temperature Seebeck coefficient metrology. J. Appl. Phys. 108(12), 121101 (2010).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Xie, H., Wang, H., Pei, Y., Fu, C., Liu, X., Snyder, G.J., Zhao, X., and Zhu, T.: Beneficial contribution of alloy disorder to electron and phonon transport in half-Heusler thermoelectric materials. Adv. Funct. Mater. 23(41), 5123 (2013).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pei, Y., LaLonde, A.D., Wang, H., and Snyder, G.J.: Low effective mass leading to high thermoelectric performance. Energy Environ. Sci. 5(7), 7963 (2012).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fu, C., Zhu, T., Pei, Y., Xie, H., Wang, H., Snyder, G.J., Liu, Y., Liu, Y., and Zhao, X.: High band degeneracy contributes to high thermoelectric performance in p-type half-Heusler compounds. Adv. Energy Mater. 4(18), 1400600 (2014).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fu, C., Zhu, T., Liu, Y., Xie, H., and Zhao, X.: Band engineering of high performance p-type FeNbSb based half-Heusler thermoelectric materials for figure of merit zT > 1. Energy Environ. Sci. 8(1), 216 (2014).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Iwanaga, S., Toberer, E.S., LaLonde, A., and Snyder, G.J.: A high temperature apparatus for measurement of the Seebeck coefficient. Rev. Sci. Instrum. 82(6), 063905 (2011).CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Martin, J.: Protocols for the high temperature measurement of the Seebeck coefficient in thermoelectric materials. Meas. Sci. Technol. 24(8), 085601 (2013).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ponnambalam, V., Lindsey, S., Hickman, N.S., and Tritt, T.M.: Sample probe to measure resistivity and thermopower in the temperature range of 300-1000 K. Rev. Sci. Instrum. 77(7), 073904 (2006).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Burkov, A.T., Heinrich, A., Konstantinov, P.P., Nakama, T., and Yagasaki, K.: Experimental set-up for thermopower and resistivity measurements at 100-1300 K. Meas. Sci. Technol. 12(3), 264 (2001).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yu, C., Zhu, T., Shi, R., Zhang, Y., Zhao, X., and He, J.: High-performance half-Heusler thermoelectric materials Hf1−xZrxNiSn1−ySby prepared by levitation melting and spark plasma sintering. Acta Mater. 57(9), 2757 (2009).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wood, C., Chmielewski, A., and Zoltan, D.: Measurement of Seebeck coefficient using a large thermal gradient. Rev. Sci. Instrum. 59(6), 951 (1988).CrossRefGoogle Scholar