Thermoelectric Properties of Nanostructured CoSb3 Fast Prepared by Solid-State Reaction

Nanostructured p-type CoSb3 was successfully synthesized by solid-state reaction method. The phase composition and crystallographic structure were characterized by X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy, respectively. The electrical properties of the samples prepared with different temperatures and holding time were tested at room temperature. The samples with better power factor at room temperature were selected to study the thermoelectric properties at different temperatures. The results show that the single phase skutterudite thermoelectric materials can be prepared by ball milling combined with solid-state reaction. The obtained samples have many uniform micron-sized pores and the grains are in the nanometer range. The maximum Seebeck coefficient of 222.64 mu V/K is obtained at 469.8 K when the sample is synthesized at 863 K. The maximum power factor of 132.17 mu W/(m.K-2) is obtained at 570 K and the maximum thermoelectric figure of merit ZT of similar to 0.053 is obtained at 600 K when the sample is synthesized at 903 K.