Effects of AI Addition on the Thermoelectric Properties of Zn-Sb Based Alloys

The β-Zn4Sb3, emerged as a compelling p-type thermoelectric material, is widely used in heat-electricity conversion in the 400-650 K range. In order to probe the effects of slight doping on the crystal structure and physical properties, we prepared the samples of Al-added Zn-Sb based alloys by spark plasma sintering and evaluated their microstructures and thermoelectric properties. After a limited Al addition into the Zn-Sb based alloys we observed many phases in the alloys, which include a major phase β-Zn4Sb3,intermetallic phases ZnSb and AISb. The major β-Zn4Sb3 phase plays a fundamental role in controlling the thermoelectric performance, the precipitated phases ZnSb and AISb are of great importance to tailor the transport properties, such as the gradual enhancement of lattice thermal conductivity, in spite of an increased phonon scattering in additional grain boundaries. The highest thermoelectric figure of merit of 0.55 is obtained for the alloy with a limited AI addition at 653 K, which is 0.08 higher than that of un-doped β-Zn4Sb3 at the corresponding temperature. Physical property experiments indicate that there is a potentiality for the improvement of thermoelectric properties if a proper elemental doping is carried out into the Zn-Sb based alloys, which was confirmed by AI addition in the present work.