Skutterudite Unicouple Characterization for Energy Harvesting Applications

被引：83

作者：

Muto, Andrew ^{[1
]}

Yang, Jian ^{[2
]}

Poudel, Bed ^{[2
]}

Ren, Zhifeng ^{[3
]}

Chen, Gang ^{[1
]}

机构：

[1] MIT, Dept Mech Engn, Cambridge, MA 02139 USA

[2] GMZ Energy, Waltham, MA 02453 USA

[3] Boston Coll, Dept Phys, Chestnut Hill, MA 02467 USA

来源：

ADVANCED ENERGY MATERIALS | 2013年 / 3卷 / 02期

关键词：

energy devices; energy conversion; energy harvesting; skutterudite; solar energy; thermoelectric energy; PERFORMANCE; TESTS;

D O I：

10.1002/aenm.201200503

中图分类号：

O64 [物理化学（理论化学）、化学物理学];

学科分类号：

070304 ; 081704 ;

摘要：

Skutterudites are promising thermoelectric materials because of their high figure of merit, ZT, and good thermomechanical properties. This work reports the effective figure of merit, ZTeff, 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 (Yb0.35Co4Sb12) and Co2Si for the p-type skutterudite (NdFe3.5Co0.5Sb12). A technique is developed to measure the ZTeff of individual legs and the efficiency of a unicouple. An ZTeff of 0.74 is determined for the n-type legs operating between 52 and 595 degrees C, and an ZTeff of 0.51 for the p-type legs operating between 77 and 600 degrees C. The efficiency of the pn unicouple is determined to be 9.1% operating between approximate to 70 and 550 degrees C.

引用

页码：245 / 251

页数：7

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