1. Thermoelectric properties of directionally solidified half-Heusler compound NbCoSn alloys
- Author
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Takuji Kita, Yoshisato Kimura, and Yukio Tamura
- Subjects
Zone melting ,Materials science ,Physics and Astronomy (miscellaneous) ,Condensed matter physics ,Metallurgy ,Power factor ,engineering.material ,Heusler compound ,Degenerate semiconductor ,Electrical resistivity and conductivity ,Seebeck coefficient ,Thermoelectric effect ,engineering ,Directional solidification - Abstract
Single- and multiphase samples of the n-type half-Heusler NbCoSn were prepared by directional solidification using the optical floating zone melting method, and the thermoelectric properties of these samples were evaluated. NbCoSn has an excellent thermoelectric power which exceeds −250μVK−1 at around 900K and a relatively high carrier concentration, 4.82×1026m−3. A metalliclike temperature dependence of the electrical resistivity indicates that NbCoSn is a degenerate semiconductor. NbCoSn also shows an excellent power factor, 2.5mWm−1K−2 at about 650K, even without any tuning of the electrical properties which are susceptible to coexisting metallic phases.
- Published
- 2008
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