Super-rapid Preparation of Nanostructured NdxFe3CoSb12 Compounds and Their Improved Thermoelectric Performance

We report super-rapid preparation of p-type NdxFe3CoSb12 (x = 0.8, 0.85, 0.9, 0.95, 1.0) skutterudite compounds via a homemade induction melting assembly inside a glovebox followed by spark plasma sintering. Compared with samples prepared by solid-state reaction, the processing time is dramatically reduced from 9 days to less than 3 h, which is also significantly faster than the traditional melt-spinning method (40 h). Furthermore, the thermal conductivity of the bulk samples was remarkably reduced due to the Nd filler and the increased grain-boundary density. The enhanced thermoelectric performance coupled with the drastically reduced processing time is of considerable significance for commercial-scale production of skutterudite-based thermoelectric materials.