We measured thermopower, thermal conductivity and electrical resitivity for Ca₂Sn sample across 4-350 K temperature range. Contrary to expectations from recent DFT based calculations the thermopower is not particularly large, reaching 7 μV at 350 K. The thermoelectric figure of merit renders this material in unmodified form practically unusable for thermoelectric aplications.
The heavy fermion compound Ce₃Co₄Sn₁₃ was studied in terms of its thermoelectric properties. To enhance its figure of merit we milled the solid sample and then pressed to obtain a consistent granulated material. The main properties, such as the Seebeck coefficient, thermal conductivity and electronic resistivity were measured at low (< 300 K) temperatures for both, the solid and the granulated sample. Thermal conductivity was diminished and the Seebeck coefficient was slightly enhanced, while the resistivity of produced material was increased. We explain it by strong electron scattering on defects and grain boundaries present in the sample. The resulting figure of merit ZT was found to be enhanced almost across the whole measured T region.
JavaScript is turned off in your web browser. Turn it on to take full advantage of this site, then refresh the page.