Thermoelectric Characteristics of a Commercialized Mg2Si Source Doped with Al, Bi, Ag, and Cu

• Published in: Journal of electronic materials 2010-09, Vol.39 (9), p.1708-1713
• Main Authors: Sakamoto, Tatsuya, Iida, Tsutomu, Matsumoto, Atsunobu, Honda, Yasuhiko, Nemoto, Takashi, Sato, Junichi, Nakajima, Tadao, Taguchi, Hirohisa, Takanashi, Yoshifumi
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Applied sciences; Characterization and Evaluation of Materials; Chemistry and Materials Science; Condensed matter: electronic structure, electrical, magnetic, and optical properties; Conductivity phenomena in semiconductors and insulators; Electron states; Electronic transport in condensed matter; Electronics; Electronics and Microelectronics; Exact sciences and technology; Instrumentation; Materials; Materials Science; Methods of electronic structure calculations; Optical and Electronic Materials; Physics; Solid State Physics; Thermoelectric and thermomagnetic effects
• ISSN: 0361-5235; 1543-186X
• DOI: 10.1007/s11664-010-1155-y

The thermoelectric characteristics of commercial polycrystalline Mg 2 Si doped with Bi, Al + Bi, Ag, and Cu were examined. The samples for the thermoelectric measurements were prepared using the plasma-activated sintering (PAS) technique. The measured values of the Seebeck coefficient were compared with values calculated using the all-electron band-structure calculation package (ABCAP) based on a full-potential augmented-plane-wave (FLAPW) band-structure calculation in a local density approximation (LDA). For the Bi + Al-co-doped samples, the observed values of the dimensionless figure of merit, ZT , were higher than those of solely Bi-doped samples. The maximum value obtained for Bi + Al-doped Mg 2 Si was 0.77 at 862 K. For the Ag-doped samples, ZT was significantly lower than that of the Bi + Al-doped samples, with the maximum value being about 0.11 at 873 K.