Abstract
The choice of the appropriate metallizing layer for high-temperature thermoelectric (TE) materials is a tricky task and poses varied challenges to researchers. In this work, a n type TiAl metallizing layer (90% Ti with 10% Al by weight with a copper foil) is proposed for a \(\hbox {Yb}_{0.2}\hbox {Co}_{4}\hbox {Sb}_{12}\) skutterudite (SK) TE material coupled with a standard ‘p type’ SK base of \(\hbox {Nd}_{0.45}\hbox {Ce}_{0.45}\hbox {Fe}_{3.5}\hbox {Co}_{0.5}\hbox {Sb}_{12}\) with a 60:12:28% Fe:Ni:Cr metallizing layer. The n type and p type nanostructured SK powders are sintered at high temperatures and pressures in a DC hot press from which a TE device is assembled using diced, polished and property characterized TE legs (high figure of merit zT of 1.4 for n type and 1.2 for p type, respectively). The device is evaluated for functional degradation with repeated cycling to 500°C hot side (HS) and 50°C cold side (CS) temperatures in a specially designed high-vacuum test rig with key TE properties like peak power, open circuit voltage, and material internal resistance continuously recorded over each cycle. The device shows stable performance with <7% drop in TE harvested power over ~2500 thermal cycles. With the industry benchmark for evaluating TE device performance being around 1000 thermal cycles (<10% drop in TE power over time), the study indicates stable performance of the n type TiAl metallizing layer over the device lifetime.
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Rao, A., Bosak, G., Joshi, B. et al. A TiAlCu Metallization for ‘n’ Type \(\hbox {CoSb}_x\) Skutterudites with Improved Performance for High-Temperature Energy Harvesting Applications. J. Electron. Mater. 46, 2419–2431 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11664-017-5306-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11664-017-5306-2