Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 February 2011
Filled skutterudite compounds possess very low thermal conductivities due to the scattering of a wide range of phonon modes caused by a loosely bound cation incorporated in a cavity of the structure. The inclusion of such a filler cation causes several synthetic difficulties since the desired compounds are thermodynamically unstable with respect to disproportionation. Modulated elemental reactants were used in this study to circumvent these difficulties. SnxCo4Sb12 samples with x=0.5 and nearly 1.0 were synthesized using this method. To prevent nucleation of unwanted binary compounds, the repeat unit made up of elemental layers was less than 20 angstroms 500mg of each sample were produced, allowing for the samples to be hot pressed into a pellet. Structural analysis as well as measurements of the physical properties are presented.