Effect of Carbon Nanotubes on Thermoelectric Properties in Zn^sub 0.98^Al^sub 0.02^O

• Published in: Journal of electronic materials 2016-03, Vol.45 (3), p.1459
• Main Authors: Dreßler, Christian, Löhnert, Romy, Gonzalez-julian, Jesus, Guillon, Olivier, Töpfer, Jörg, Teichert, Steffen
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Carbon; Electric properties; Nanotubes; Thermodynamics
• ISSN: 0361-5235; 1543-186X
• DOI: 10.1007/s11664-015-4070-4

(ProQuest: ... denotes formulae and/or non-USASCII text omitted; see image) Issue Title: 2015 International Conference on Thermoelectrics. Guest Editors: Jihui Yang, Matt Beekman, Donald Morelli, James Salvador, David Singh, Hsin Wang, Emmanuel Guilmeau, Juri Grin, Bertrand Lenoir, Xinfeng Tang, Wenqing Zhang, Chunlei Wan, TieJun Zhu, Ryoji Funahashi, Takao Mori, Tsunehiro Takeuchi, Sabah Bux Thermoelectric oxides can provide the advantage of high-temperature stability in oxygen-containing atmospheres. It is known that the incorporation of multiwalled carbon nanotubes (mw-CNT) can change the thermoelectric as well as the structural properties of oxides. Here, we report the influence of mw-CNT on the thermoelectric properties of Al-doped ZnO (AZO). The preparation of the mw-CNT-added AZO was done using an ultrasonic mixing of the starting materials followed by a spark plasma sintering process under vacuum. The Seebeck coefficient S, thermal conductivity [lambda] and electrical conductivity σ were determined in the temperature range between 300 K and 900 K. It was observed that the thermal conductivity is significantly reduced by the incorporation of the mw-CNT. At the same time, the electrical conductivity is increased by a factor of 21 from 8700 S/m to 190,000 S/m. The Power factor ... indicates that the addition of mw-CNT improves the thermoelectric properties of Al doped ZnO in comparison to the reference sample prepared with same process but without mw-CNT.