Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t7fkt Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-24T10:00:10.176Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Enhanced electrical conductivity in Si80Ge20B0.6 alloys with Er addition prepared by spark plasma sintering

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 June 2011

Ran Zhao ,
Li Shen  and
Fu Guo
Ran Zhao
Affiliation:
The College of Materials Science and Engineering, Beijing University of Technology, Beijing 100124, People’s Republic of China
Li Shen
Affiliation:
The College of Materials Science and Engineering, Beijing University of Technology, Beijing 100124, People’s Republic of China
Fu Guo*
Affiliation:
The College of Materials Science and Engineering, Beijing University of Technology, Beijing 100124, People’s Republic of China
*
a)Address all correspondence to this author. e-mail: [email protected]
Get access

Abstract

Si80Ge20B0.6 thermoelectric alloys with minute erbium (Er) addition were prepared by the spark plasma sintering technique. The samples with different amounts of Er additions were analyzed by x-ray diffraction, x-ray fluorescence, and x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. The thermoelectric properties were measured from 400 to 900 K. Effects of the amount of Er addition on the thermoelectric properties of Si80Ge20B0.6 alloys were investigated. New findings indicate that the Er-added alloys have larger carrier concentrations than the pristine sample. The larger carrier concentration appears to make a significant contribution to the electrical conductivity. Seebeck coefficient decreases with the increase of carrier concentration, whereas the power factor increases with increasing electrical conductivity. It was generally believed that the scattering of phonons by carriers may result in the thermal conductivity reduction. The samples with Er addition exhibit better figure of merits than the pristine sample. The optimal ratio of Er addition is actually in the range of 0.085–0.125 at.%.

Keywords

ThermoelectricErPowder metallurgy
Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Materials Research , Volume 26 , Issue 15: Focus Issue: Advances in Thermoelectric Materials , 14 August 2011 , pp. 1879 - 1885
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 2011

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

1.Slack, G.A. and Hussain, M.A.: The maximum possible conversion efficiency of silicon-germanium thermoelectric generators. J. Appl. Phys. 70, 2694 (1991).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
2.Vining, C.B.: A model for the high-temperature transport properties of heavily doped n-type silicon-germanium alloys. J. Appl. Phys. 69, 331 (1991).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
3.Xu, G.-Y., Jiang, H.-W., Zhang, C.-Y., Wu, X.-F., and Niu, S.-T.: Thermoelectric properties on n-type Si80Ge20 with different dopants, in Int. Conf. Thermoelectr. Proc. (Piscataway, NJ, 2006), pp. 272–275.Google Scholar
4.Dismukes, J.P., Ekstrom, L., Steigmeier, E.F., Kudman, I., and Beers, D.S.: Theory of deep impurities in silicon-germanium alloys. J. Appl. Phys. 35, 2899 (1964).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
5.Vining, C.B., Laskow, W., Hanson, J.O., Beck, V.D., and Gorsuch, P.D.: Thermoelectric properties of pressure-sintered Si0.8Ge0.2 thermoelectric alloys. J. Appl. Phys. 69, 4333 (1991).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
6.Xu, Y.-D., Xu, G.-Y., and Ge, C.-C.: The research trends of SiGe alloys thermoelectric materials. Mater. Rev. 21, 102 (2007).Google Scholar
7.Xu, Y.-D., Xu, G.-Y., and Ge, C.-C.: Improvement in thermoelectric properties of n-type Si95Ge5 alloys by heavy multi-dopants. Scr. Mater. 58, 1070 (2008).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
8.Fuda, K. and Sugiyama, S.: Effect of rare-earth cation doping on enhancement of the thermoelectric power of zinc oxide, Materials and Technologies for Direct Thermal-to-Electric Energy Conversion, edited by J. Yang, T.P. Hogan, R. Funahashi, and G.S. Nolas (Mater. Res. Soc. Symp. Proc. 886, Warrendale, PA, 2006), p. 473.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
9.Nong, N.V., Liu, C.-J., and Ohtaki, M.: High-temperature thermoelectric properties of late rare earth-doped Ca3Co4O9+δ. J. Alloy. Comp. 509, 977 (2011).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
10.Ito, M., Nagira, T., and Hara, S.: Thermoelectric properties of NaxCo2O4 with rare-earth metals doping prepared by polymerized complex method. J. Alloy. Comp. 408–412, 1217 (2006).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
11.Ren, P., Wu, R.-G., Zhang, Y.-H., and Xu, G.-Y.: Effects of Gd on thermoelectric properties of Bi2Te3 based materials. J. Mater. Sci. Eng. 28, 279 (2010).Google Scholar
12.Xu, G.-Y., Niu, S.-T., Zhang, L.-L., and Ge, C.-C.: Thermoelectric properties of MyCoSb3 (M= Dy and Er) containing fullerite, in Int. Conf. Thermoelectr. ICT Proc. (Piscataway, NJ, 2003), pp. 52–55.Google Scholar
13.Sales, B.C.: Electron crystals and phonon glasses: A new path to improved thermoelectric materials. MRS Bull. 23, 15 (1998).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
14.Rowe, D.M.: CRC Handbook of Thermoelectrics (CRC Press, Boca Raton, FL, 1995), p. 211.Google Scholar
15.Abeies, B., Beers, D.S., Cody, G.D., and Dismukes, J.P.: Thermal conductivity of Ge-Si alloys at temperature. Phys. Rev. 125, 44 (1962).Google Scholar
16.Min, G. and Rowe, D.M.: High-temperature heat treatment of silicon germanium gallium phosphide alloys. J. Appl. Phys. 70, 3843 (1991).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
17.Scoville, N. and Rolfe, J.: Thermal conductivity reduction in SiGe alloys by the addition of nanophase particles. Nanostruct. Mater. 5, 20 (1995).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
18.Draper, S.L., Vandersande, J.W., Wood, C., Masters, R., and Raag, V.: Effect of Ga and P dopants on the thermoelectric properties of n-type SiGe, in Proc. Intersoc. Energy Convers. Eng. Conf. (Washington, DC, 1989), pp. 711–714.Google Scholar
19.Scoville, N., Bajgar, C., Rolfe, J., Fleurial, J.P., and Vandersande, J.: Optimization of hot-pressed n-type and p-type SiGe thermoelectric materials, in Proc. Intersoc. Energy Convers. Conf. 1 (Atlanta, GA, 1993), pp. 227–233.Google Scholar
20.Fleurial, J.P., Caillat, T., and Borshchevsky, A.: Skutterudites, a new class of promising thermoelectric materials, in AIP Conf. Proc. (Kansas, MO, 1995), pp. 40–44.Google Scholar
21.Joshi, G., Lee, H., and Lan, Y.-C.: Enhanced thermoelectric figure-of-merit in nanostructured p-type silicon germanium bulk alloys. Nano Lett. 8, 4670 (2008).CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
22.Gibbons, J.F., Moll, J.L., and Meyer, N.I.: The doping of semiconductors by ion bombardment. Nucl. Instrum. Methods 38, 165 (1965).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
23.Sclar, N.: Survey of dopants in silicon for 2-2.7 and 3-5 μm infrared detector application. Infrared Phys. 17, 71 (1977).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
24.Jiang, J., Chen, L.-D., Bai, S.-Q., and Yao, Q.: Thermoelectric performance of p-type Bi-Sb-Te materials prepared by spark plasma sintering. J. Alloy. Comp. 390, 208 (2005).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
25.Chen, Y.-K., Chen, C., and Xiang, L.: Effect on the properties of different preparation processes in Ca3Co4O9 thermoelectric material, in Int. Conf. Electr. Control Eng. Proc. (Wuhan, 2010), pp. 4672–4676.Google Scholar
26.Jiang, J., Chen, L.-D., Bai, S.-Q., Yao, Q., and Wang, Q.: Fabrication and thermoelectric performance of textured n-type Bi2(Te, Se)3 by spark plasma sintering. Mater. Sci. Eng., B 117, 334 (2005).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
27.Xu, Y.-D., Xu, G.-Y., Liu, Y.-H., and Ge, C.-C.: Enhancement in thermoelectrical power factor of n-type Si80Ge20 alloys. J. Chin. Phys. Lett. 25, 2664 (2008).Google Scholar
28.Bajgar, C., Masters, R., Scoville, N., and Vandersande, J.: Thermoelectric properties of hot pressed p-type SiGe alloys, in AIP Conf. Proc. 217 (Albuquerque, NM, 1991), pp. 440–445.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
29.Luzan, S.P., Listovnichii, V.E., Buyanov, Y.I., and Martsenyuk, P.S.: Phase diagram of the binary erbium-silicon system and physical properties of erbium silicides up to 1050 °C. J. Alloy. Comp. 239, 77 (1996).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
30.Li, J.-M., Tu, H.-L., Zheng, A.-S., Deng, Z.-J., and Luo, Z.-Q.: Growth of (100) Zn-doped GaSb single crystals. Chinese J. Rare Metals 25, 321 (2001).Google Scholar
31.Hutner, R.A. and Rittner, E.S.: Fermi levels in semiconductors. Philips Res. Rep. 5, 188 (1950).Google Scholar
32.Bhandari, C.M. and Rowe, D.M.: Silicon-germanium alloys as high-temperature thermoelectric materials. J. Contem. Phys. 21, 219 (1980).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
33.Rowe, D.M. and Williams, S.G.K.: Comments on the thermoelectric properties of pressure-sintered Si0.8Ge0.2 thermoelectric alloys. J. Appl. Phys. 73, 4683 (1993).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
34.Slack, G.-A.: Thermal conductivity of pure and impure silicon, silicon carbide, and diamond. J. Appl. Phys. 35, 3460 (1964).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
35.Meddins, H.R. and Parrott, J.E.: The thermal and thermoelectric properties of sintered germanium-silicon alloys. J. Phys. C: Solid State Phys. 9, 1263 (1976).CrossRefGoogle Scholar