Thermoelectric Properties of Hot-Pressed Materials Based on Mg2SinSn1−n

Mg2SinSn1−n solid solutions consist of nontoxic widespread elements. In this work a number of samples of Mg2SinSn1−n solid solutions, where 1 ≥ n ≥ 0.7 with various carrier concentrations, were obtained using microcrystalline powder by hot pressing in vacuum. The Seebeck coefficient and the thermal and electrical conductivity were measured in the temperature range from 300 K to 800 K. It is shown that the specific thermoelectric figure of merit (the ratio of the thermoelectric figure of merit to the material density) of these samples weakly depends on the composition of the solid solution. Hence, whether a solid solution or pure Mg2Si is used depends on the application temperature of the material.