Ytterbium Silicide (YbSi2): A Promising Thermoelectric Material with a High Power Factor at Room Temperature. Issue 2 (12th December 2017)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Tanusilp, Sora‐at; Ohishi, Yuji; Muta, Hiroaki; Yamanaka, Shinsuke; Nishide, Akinori; Hayakawa, Jun; Kurosaki, Ken
• Is Part Of: Physica status solidi. Volume 12:Issue 2(2018)
• Page Start: n/a
• Page End: n/a
• Publication Date: 2017-12-12
• Subjects: electrical resistivity -- Seebeck coefficient -- thermal conductivity -- thermoelectric materials -- YbSi2; Solid state physics -- Periodicals; 530.4105
• DOI: 10.1002/pssr.201700372
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1862-6254

Abstract

Abstract : Metal silicide‐based thermoelectric (TE) materials have attracted attention in the past two decades, because they are less toxic, with low production cost and high chemical stability. Here, we study the TE properties of ytterbium silicide YbSi2 with a specific layered structure and the mixed valence state of Yb 2+ and Yb 3+ . YbSi2 exhibits large Seebeck coefficient, S, accompanied by high electrical conductivity, σ, leading to high power factor, S 2 σ, of 2.2 mW m −1 K −2 at room temperature, which is comparable to those of state‐of‐the‐art TE materials such as Bi2 Te3 and PbTe. Moreover, YbSi2 exhibits high Grüneisen parameter of 1.57, which leads to relatively low lattice thermal conductivity, κ lat, of 3.0 W m −1 K −1 at room temperature. The present study reveals that YbSi2 can be a good candidate of TE materials working near room temperature. Abstract : Thermoelectric (TE) devices can convert heat to electricity and vice versa; thus, they have attracted interest as power generators or refrigerators. A new promising TE material YbSi2 exhibits high Seebeck coefficient accompanied by large electrical conductivity, which leads to high power factor comparable to those of the conventional Bi2 Te3 at around room temperature.