0000000000510617
AUTHOR
Alex Zevalkink
Thermoelectric properties of Zn-doped Ca_(3)AlSb_(3)
Polycrystalline samples of Ca_(3)Al_(1)−_(x)Zn_(x)Sb_(3), with x = 0.00, 0.01, 0.02, and 0.05 were synthesized via a combined ball milling and hot pressing technique and the influence of zinc as a dopant on the thermoelectric properties was studied and compared to the previously reported transport properties of sodium-doped Ca_(3)AlSb_(3). Consistent with the transport in the sodium-doped material, substitution of aluminum with zinc leads to p-type carrier conduction that can be sufficiently explained with a single parabolic band model. It is found that, while exhibiting higher carrier mobilities, the doping effectiveness of zinc is lower than that of sodium and the optimum carrier concentr…
Thermoelectric properties of Sr_3GaSb_3 – a chain-forming Zintl compound
Inspired by the promising thermoelectric properties in the Zintl compounds Ca_3AlSb_3 and Ca_5Al_2Sb_6, we investigate here the closely related compound Sr_3GaSb_3. Although the crystal structure of Sr_3GaSb_3 contains infinite chains of corner-linked tetrahedra, in common with Ca_3AlSb_3 and Ca_5Al_2Sb_6, it has twice as many atoms per unit cell (N = 56). This contributes to the exceptionally low lattice thermal conductivity (κ_L = 0.45 W m^(−1) K^(−1) at 1000 K) observed in Sr_3GaSb_3 samples synthesized for this study by ball milling followed by hot pressing. High temperature transport measurements reveal that Sr_3GaSb_3 is a nondegenerate semiconductor (consistent with Zintl charge-coun…