Effects of High Magnetic Fields on Microstructures and Thermoelectric Properties of Zn-Sb Alloy
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MORE than 50 pct of energy consumption is untapped heat during energy conversion and utilization. With the increasingly serious energy crisis and the rising environmental issues, it is significant to recycle waste heat. Thermoelectric (TE) materials can convert waste heat into electrical energy with the advantages of no noise, no pollution, and the ability to work in harsh environments. They have been extensively used for waste heat recovery, thermal cooling, and alternative energy.[1,2] The temperatures of most waste heat sources, such as car exhaust gases, boilers, and other industrial furnaces, are generally found in the range of 400 K to 700 K (127 C to 427 C). Hence, the middle-temperature TE materials have broad application. Currently, the practical application of these middle-temperature TE materials is mainly PbTe-based compounds. However, PbTe-based compounds are subject to increasingly stringent restrictions due to the toxicity of Pb. Consequently, the development of alternative TE materials has become an important topic. Unlike others, Zn4Sb3 attracts much attention as an alternative for the PbTebased TE materials. This is greatly attributed to its low YI YUAN, Lecturer, is with the Key Laboratory of Electromagnetic Processing of Materials (Ministry of Education), Northeastern University, Shenyang 110819, P.R. China, and also with the School of Materials and Metallurgy, Northeastern University, Shenyang 110819, P.R. China. JUN MAO, Master Student, is with the School of Materials and Metallurgy, Northeastern University. TIE LIU, Associate Professor, and QIANG WANG and JICHENG HE, Professors, are with the Key Laboratory of Electromagnetic Processing of Materials (Ministry of Education), Northeastern University. Contact e-mails: [email protected]; [email protected] MASAHIRO TAHASHI, Associate Professor, is with the Department of Electrical Engineering, College of Engineering, Chubu University, Kasugai 487-8501, Japan. Manuscript submitted December 2, 2014. METALLURGICAL AND MATERIALS TRANSACTIONS A
thermal conductivity and electrical resistivity, as well as its nontoxic and eco-friendly characteristics. In general, the properties of TE materials are evaluated by a dimensionless figure of merit, ZT, which is defined as s2T/qk, where s, T, q, and k are the Seebeck coefficient, absolute temperature, electrical resistivity, and thermal conductivity, respectively. s2/q, a power factor, is used to depict the electrical transport properties. A good TE material should possess lower thermal conductivity, lower electrical resistivity, and a higher Seebeck coefficient. However, these three parameters are interdependent. On the other hand, the properties of TE materials depend on their microstructure. For example, compositional inhomogeneity inevitably leads to evidently lower-quality material properties. In addition, a multicrystal structure of a high degree of orientation can significantly increase the electric conductivity, thermal conductivity, and Seebeck coefficients toward a certain direction. Jiang et al.
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