Abstract
The successful implementation of thermoelectric (TE) materials for waste heat recovery depends strongly on our ability to increase their performance. This challenge continues to generate a renewed interest in novel high TE performance compounds. The technological difficulties in producing homogeneous ingots of new compounds or alloys with regular shape and a size sufficiently large to prepare several samples that are usually needed for a separate measurement of all TE parameters are well known. It creates a situation whereby material performance could be critically over- or under-evaluated at the first stages of the research process of a new material. Both cases would equally lead to negative consequences. Thus, minimizing the specimen size yet keeping it adequate for accurate material characterization becomes extremely important. In this work we report the experimental validation of reliable simultaneous measurements of the four most relevant TE parameters on a single bismuth telluride alloy based specimen of 4 mm × 4 mm × 1.4 mm in size. This translates in roughly 140 mg in weight for one of the heaviest TE materials, as was used in this study, and <100 mg for most others. Our validation is based on comparative measurements performed by a Harman apparatus (ZT-Scanner) on a series of differently sized specimens of hot extruded bismuth telluride based alloys. The Seebeck coefficient, electrical resistivity, thermal conductivity and the figure of merit were simultaneously assessed from 300 K to 440 K with increments of 20 K, 15 K, 10 K, 5 K, and 1 K. Our choice of a well-known homogeneous material has been made to increase measurement reliability and accuracy, but the results are expected to be valid for the full TE characterization of any unknown material. These results show a way to significantly decrease specimen sizes which has the potential to accelerate investigation of novel TE materials for large scale waste heat recovery.
Article PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
Avoid common mistakes on your manuscript.
References
D. Vasilevskiy, R.A. Masut, and S. Turenne, J. Electron. Mater. 41, 1057 (2012).
J. Davidow and Y. Gelbstein, J. Electron. Mater. 42, 1542 (2013).
K. Bartholomé, B. Balke, D. Zuckermann, M. Köhne, M. Müller, K. Tarantik, and J. König, J. Electron. Mater. 43, 1775 (2014).
Y. Gelbstein, N. Tal, A. Yarmek, Y. Rosenberg, M. Dariel, S. Ouardi, B. Balke, C. Felser, and M. Köhne, J. Mater. Res. 26, 1919 (2011).
Y. Sadia, L. Dinnerman, and Y. Gelbstein, J. Electron. Mater. 42, 1926 (2013).
D. Shin, K. Jang, S. Ur, and I. Kimi, J. Electron. Mater. 42, 1542 (2013).
Lu Xu and Donald T. Morelli, Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys. 15, 5762 (2013).
H. Wang, W. Porter, H. Botner, J. Konig, L. Chen, S. Baaai, T. Tritt, A. Mayolet, J. Senawiratne, C. Smith, F. Harris, P. Gilbert, J. Sharp, J. Lo, H. Kleinke, and L. Kiss, J. Electron. Mater. 42, 654 (2013).
H. Wang, W. Porter, H. Botner, J. Konig, L. Chen, S. Baaai, T. Tritt, A. Mayolet, J. Senawiratne, C. Smith, F. Harris, P. Gilbert, J. Sharp, J. Lo, H. Kleinke, and L. Kiss, J. Electron. Mater. 42, 1073 (2013).
H. Wang, S. Bai, L. Chen, A. Guenat, G. Goshi, H. Kleinke, J. Konig, H. Lee, J. Martin, M. Oh, W. Porter, Z. Ren, J. Salvador, J. Sharp, P. Taylor, A. Thompson, and Y. Tseng, J. Electron. Mater. 44, 4482 (2015).
J. Martin, W. Wong-Ng, T. Caillat, I. Yonenaga, and M.L. Green, J. Appl. Phys. 115, 193501 (2014).
D. Vasilevskiy, J.-M. Simard, R.A. Masut, and S. Turenne, J. Electron. Mater. 44, 1733 (2015).
D. Vasilevskiy, J.-M. Simard, R.A. Masut, and S. Turenne, J. Electron. Mater. 45, 1540 (2016).
T.C. Harman, J. Appl. Phys. 29, 1373 (1958).
J.-M. Simard, D. Vasilevskiy, F. Bélanger, J. L’Ecuyer, and S. Turenne, in Proceedings of 20th International Conference on Thermoelectrics, (2001), p. 132.
D. Vasilevskiy, J.-M. Simard, F. Bélanger, F. Bernier, S. Turenne, and J. L’Ecuyer, in Proceedings of 21st International Conference on Thermoelectrics, (2002), pp. 24–27.
Fraunhofer IPM, ZT-Meter 870K (IPM Fraunhofer Website, 2016), http://www.ipm.fraunhofer.de/content/dam/ ipm/de/PDFs/produktblaetter/TES_Thermoelektrik_und_ Integrierte_Sensorsysteme/ZT-Meter870K_web.pdf. Accessed 18 Oct 2016.
ULVAC, ZEM-3 Product Data Sheet (CCR Process Product Website, 2016), http://www.ccrprocessproducts.com/media/cat alog/customfield/ZEM-3_Product_Data_Sheet.pdf. Accessed 18 Oct 2016.
LINSEIS, LSR3 Seebeck Resistivity (LINSEIS Website, 2016), http://www.linseis.com/fileadmin/_migrated/content_ uploads/LSR3_Seebeck_Resistivity.pdf. Accessed 18 Oct 2016.
NETZCSH, Seebeck Coefficient & Electrical Conductivity (NETZCSH Thermal Analysis Website, 2016), https://www. netzsch-thermal-analysis.com/en/products-solutions/seebeck-coefficientelectrical-conductivity/. Accessed 18 Oct 2016.
Acknowledgements
We acknowledge the financial support of the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), and of the Fonds de Recherche du Québec -Nature et Technologies (FRQNT), Team Project.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Vasilevskiy, D., Simard, JM., Masut, R.A. et al. Reduction of Specimen Size for the Full Simultaneous Characterization of Thermoelectric Performance. J. Electron. Mater. 46, 3007–3011 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11664-016-5103-3
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11664-016-5103-3