Substantial enhancement of thermoelectric power factor of undoped CoSb3 skutterudites processed by microwave sintering

摘要: In the present work, a new strategy combining the solvo-hydrothermal method with microwave sintering (MWS) technique was successfully employed to synthesize single phase p-type CoSb 3 skutterudite. The microwave sintered bulk materials with uniform grain size of 190 nm to 230 nm, and a compaction density of> 80% were obtained. The effect of microwave sintering conditions on thermoelectric properties is discussed in detail, where all the samples exhibit enhanced thermoelectric power factor. To achieve a large Seebeck coefficient and high electrical conductivity, the disordered structure was created in the ordered CoSb 3 nanocrystalline material by varying the microwave sintering temperature and duration. Maximum power factor of 1508.6 µWm-1 K-2 was achieved at 663 K for microwave sintered sample at 600 C for 10 min. The microwave-sintered samples show an enhanced thermoelectric power factor …