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Transport properties and microstructure of indium-added cobalt–antimony-based skutterudites

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Abstract

Indium has attracted much attention as a beneficial addition to cobalt–antimony-based skutterudites as a result of good thermoelectric performance. In this study, as-cast InxCo4Sb12 with x = 0.05, 0.2 were examined using x-ray diffraction analysis and scanning electron microscopy. For x = 0.2 we found, besides the skutterudite main phase, nanometer-sized regions of secondary phases distributed along the grain boundaries, which exhibit substructures. As-cast material with x = 0.05 does not show visible precipitates. We further observed that changing one of the heat treatment parameters of In0.2Co4Sb12 has a major effect on the microstructure and shape of the precipitates, but minor influence on the skutterudite matrix composition. Energy dispersive x-ray spectroscopy analysis by transmission electron microscopy) reveals that indium is to a large extent distributed into the skutterudite structure. Measurements of short-term sintered material confirm that the addition of indium and particularly the modification of the synthesis parameter entails to an enhanced ZT.

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The authors thank the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft and the SPP1386 “Nanostrukturierte Thermoelektrika: Theorie, Modellsysteme und kontrollierte Synthese” for funding this research work at the German Aerospace Center (DLR), Cologne, Germany. We thank our cooperation partners, the group of Prof. S. Schlecht (University of Gießen) and the group of Prof. B. Paulus (FU Berlin) for helpful discussions.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Materials Research, German Aerospace Center (DLR), D-51170, Köln, Germany

    Andreas Sesselmann, Titas Dasgupta, Klemens Kelm & Eckhard Müller

  2. Leibniz-Institute for Surface Modification, D-04318, Leipzig, Germany

    Susanne Perlt

  3. Institute of Applied Physics, University of Hamburg, D-20355, Hamburg, Germany

    Sebastian Zastrow

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  1. Andreas Sesselmann
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  2. Titas Dasgupta
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  3. Klemens Kelm
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  4. Eckhard Müller
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  5. Susanne Perlt
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Correspondence to Andreas Sesselmann.

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Sesselmann, A., Dasgupta, T., Kelm, K. et al. Transport properties and microstructure of indium-added cobalt–antimony-based skutterudites. Journal of Materials Research 26, 1820–1826 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1557/jmr.2011.102

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1557/jmr.2011.102

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