Issue 10, 2011

Optimized thermoelectric properties of Mo3Sb7−xTex with significant phonon scattering by electrons

Abstract

Heavily doped compounds Mo3Sb7−xTex (x = 0, 1.0, 1.4, 1.8) were synthesized by solid state reaction and sintered by spark plasma sintering. Both X-ray diffraction and electron probe microanalysis indicated the maximum solubility of Te was around x = 1.8. The trends in the electrical transport properties can generally be understood using a single parabolic band model, which predicts that the extremely high carrier concentration of Mo3Sb7 (∼1022 cm−3) can be reduced to a nearly optimized level (∼2 × 1021 cm−3) for thermoelectric figure of merit (zT) by Te-substitution with x = 1.8. The increased lattice thermal conductivity by Te-doping was found to be due to the decreased Umklapp and electron–phonon scattering, according to a Debye model fitting. The thermoelectric figure of merit (zT) monotonously increased with increasing temperature and reached its highest value of about 0.51 at 850 K for the sample with x = 1.8, making these materials competitive with the state-of-the-art thermoelectric SiGe alloys. Evidence of significant electron–phonon scattering is found in the thermal conductivity.

Graphical abstract: Optimized thermoelectric properties of Mo3Sb7−xTex with significant phonon scattering by electrons

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
03 Apr 2011
Accepted
07 Jul 2011
First published
17 Aug 2011

Energy Environ. Sci., 2011,4, 4086-4095

Optimized thermoelectric properties of Mo3Sb7−xTex with significant phonon scattering by electrons

X. Shi, Y. Pei, G. J. Snyder and L. Chen, Energy Environ. Sci., 2011, 4, 4086 DOI: 10.1039/C1EE01406D

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