Traversing the Metal‐Insulator Transition in a Zintl Phase: Rational Enhancement of Thermoelectric Efficiency in Yb14Mn1−xAlxSb11 |
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Authors: | Eric S Toberer Catherine A Cox Shawna R Brown Teruyuki Ikeda Andrew F May Susan M Kauzlarich G Jeffrey Snyder |
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Affiliation: | 1. Materials Science, California Institute of Technology 1200 California Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91125 (USA);2. Department of Chemistry, University of California One Shields Ave., Davis, CA 95616 (USA) |
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Abstract: | For high temperature thermoelectric applications, Yb14MnSb11 has a maximum thermoelectric figure of merit (zT) of ~1.0 at 1273 K. Such a high zT is found despite a carrier concentration that is higher than typical thermoelectric materials. Here, we reduce the carrier concentration with the discovery of a continuous transition between metallic Yb14MnSb11 and semiconducting Yb14AlSb11. Yb14Mn1‐xAlxSb11 forms a solid solution where the free carrier concentration gradually changes as expected from the Zintl valence formalism. Throughout this transition the electronic properties are found to obey a rigid band model with a band gap of 0.5 eV and an effective mass of 3 me. As the carrier concentration decreases, an increase in the Seebeck coefficient is observed at the expense of an increased electrical resistivity. At the optimum carrier concentration, a maximum zT of 1.3 at 1223 K is obtained, which is more than twice that of the state‐of‐the‐art Si0.8Ge0.2 flown by NASA. |
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Keywords: | conductivity solid solutions semiconductors |
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