Improved Extruded Thermoelectric Materials.

Lavrentev, M. G.; Drabkin, I. A.; Ershova, L. B.; Volkov, M. P.

Using improved extrusion technology for bismuth antimony tellurides, RMT has developed new extruded thermoelectric materials (TEM) with increased thermoelectric figure of merit (Z). The p-type materials exhibit maximum Z values of 3.28 × 10−3 K−1 to 3.32 × 10−3 K−1 in the electrical conductivity range from 900 Ω−1 cm−1 to 1100 Ω−1 cm−1. The corresponding Z values for the n-type materials lie in the similar range of 2.82 × 10−3 K−1 to 2.87 × 10−3 K−1. The wide variation of the electrical conductivity allows their application in miniature thermoelectric coolers (TEC) for cooling and temperature stabilization in the temperature range from 225 K to 350 K. Using the improved TEM, miniature TECs with pellet height of 0.3 mm were manufactured and tested; the test results showed that the maximum temperature difference was 2 K to 3 K higher while the energy consumption was 10% to 15% lower than for standard RMT miniature TEC.

THERMOELECTRIC materials; ELECTRIC conductivity; TELLURIDES; ENERGY consumption; ANTIMONY; BISMUTH

Journal of Electronic Materials, 2020, Vol 49, Issue 5, p2937

0361-5235

Academic Journal

10.1007/s11664-020-07988-0