High-Temperature Transport Properties of Yb4-x Sm (x) Sb-3

Jean-Claude Tedenac (1) , Audrey Chamoire (1) , Franck Gascoin (1) , Claude Estournès (2)

1 ICGM ICMMM - Institut Charles Gerhardt Montpellier - Institut de Chimie Moléculaire et des Matériaux de Montpellier
2 CIRIMAT - Centre interuniversitaire de recherche et d'ingenierie des matériaux

Polycrystalline L4Sb3 (L = La, Ce, Sm, and Yb) and Yb4-x Sm (x) Sb-3, which crystallizes in the anti-Th3P4 structure type (I-43d no. 220), were synthesized via high-temperature reaction. Structural and chemical characterization were performed by x-ray diffraction and electronic microscopy with energy-dispersive x-ray analysis. Pucks were densified by spark plasma sintering. Transport property measurements showed that these compounds are n-type with low Seebeck coefficients, except for Yb4Sb3, which shows semimetallic behavior with hole conduction above 523 K. By partially substituting Yb by a trivalent rare earth we successfully improved the thermoelectric figure of merit of Yb4Sb3 up to 0.7 at 1273 K.

Mots clés: Yb4Sb3; anti-Th3P4; spark plasma sintering; thermoelectrics

Domaines: Matériaux

Jean-Claude Tedenac, Audrey Chamoire, Franck Gascoin, Claude Estournès. High-Temperature Transport Properties of Yb4-x Sm (x) Sb-3. Journal of Electronic Materials, 2010, 39 (9), pp.1579-1582. ⟨10.1007/s11664-010-1274-5⟩. ⟨hal-00521880⟩