PNNL

Abstract

N-type In-filled CoSb3 are known skutterudite compounds that have shown promising thermoelectric (TE) properties resulting in high dimensionless figure of merit values at elevated temperatures. Their use in various waste heat recovery applications will require that they survive and operate after exposure to harsh thermal cycling environments. This research focused on uncovering the thermal cycling effects on thermoelectric properties of n-type In0.2Co4Sb12 and In0.2Ce0.15Co4Sb12 skutterudite compositions as well as quantifying their temperature-dependent structural properties (elastic modulus, shear modulus, and Poisson’s ratio) . It was observed that the Seebeck coefficient and resistivity increased only slightly in the double-filled In,Ce skutterudite materials upon thermal cycling. In the In-filled skutterudites the Seebeck coefficient remained approximately the same on thermal cycling, while electrical resistivity increased significantly after thermal cycling. Results also show that thermal conductivity marginally decreases in the case of In-filled skutterudites, whereas the reduction is more pronounced in In, Ce-based skutterudite compounds. The possible reason for this kind of reduction can be attributed to grain pinning effects due to formation of nano inclusions. High temperature structural property measurements (i.e., Young’s modulus and shear modulus) are also reported and the results show that these structural properties decrease slowly as temperature increases and the compounds are structurally stable after numerous thermal cycles.