Thermoelectric properties and microstructure of SnTe-Bi/sub 2/Te/sub 3/ alloys

Abstract

Bismuth telluride based alloys have been a class of important thermoelectric materials. In this paper, polycrystalline samples of ternary compounds in the SnTn-Bi/sub 2/Te/sub 3/ system were prepared by a rapid quenching of the melt followed by a sintering procedure of compacted pellets. The microstructure and thermoelectric properties, including Seebeck coefficient, electrical and thermal conductivities, of the samples were measured. The influence of processing routes, and constituent concentration on the thermoelectric properties was studied and discussed.