No Arabic abstract
The thermoelectric properties of n type semiconductor, TiNiSn is optimized by partial substitution with metallic, MnNiSb in the half Heusler structure. Herein, we study the transport properties and intrinsic phase separation in the system. The Ti1-xMnxNiSn1-xSbx alloys were prepared by arc-melting and were annealed at temperatures obtained from differential thermal analysis and differential scanning calorimetry results. The phases were characterized using powder X-ray diffraction patterns, energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, and differential scanning calorimetry. After annealing the majority phase was TiNiSn with some Ni rich sites and the minority phases was majorly Ti6Sn5, Sn, and MnSn2. Ni rich sites were caused by Frenkel defects, this led to a metal-like behavior of the semiconducting specimens at low temperature. For x up to 0.05 the samples showed an activated conduction, whereas for x>0.05 they showed metallic character. The figure of merit for x=0.05 was increased by 61% (ZT=0.45) in comparison to the pure TiNiSn.
Thermoelectric figures of merit, ZT > 0.5, have been obtained in arc-melted TiNiSn-based ingots. This promising conversion efficiency is due to a low lattice thermal conductivity, which is attributed to excess nickel in the half-Heusler structure.
The electronic and transport properties of the half-Heusler compound LaPtSb are investigated by performing first-principles calculations combined with semi-classical Boltzmann theory and deformation potential theory. Compared with many typical half-Heusler compounds, the LaPtSb exhibits obviously larger power factor at room temperature, especially for the n-type system. Together with the very low lattice thermal conductivity, the thermoelectric figure of merit (ZT) of LaPtSb can be optimized to a record high value of 2.2 by fine tuning the carrier concentration.
We have investigated the electronic and thermoelectric properties of half-Heusler alloys NiTZ (T = Sc, and Ti; Z = P, As, Sn, and Sb) having 18 valence electron. Calculations are performed by means of density functional theory and Boltzmann transport equation with constant relaxation time approximation, validated by NiTiSn. The chosen half-Heuslers are found to be an indirect band gap semiconductor, and the lattice thermal conductivity is comparable with the state-of-the-art thermoelectric materials. The estimated power factor for NiScP, NiScAs, and NiScSb reveals that their thermoelectric performance can be enhanced by appropriate doping rate. The value of ZT found for NiScP, NiScAs, and NiScSb are 0.46, 0.35, and 0.29, respectively at 1200 K.
A half-Heusler material FeNb$_{0.8}$Ti$_{0.2}$Sb has been identified as a promising thermoelectric material due to its excellent thermoelectric performance at high temperatures. The origins of the efficient thermoelectric performance are investigated through a series of low-temperature (2 - 400 K) measurements. The high data coherence of the low and high temperatures is observed. An optimal and nearly temperature-independent carrier concentration is identified, which is ideal for the power factor. The obtained single type of hole carrier is also beneficial to the large Seebeck coefficient. The electronic thermal conductivity is found to be comparable to the lattice thermal conductivity and becomes the dominant component above 200 K. These findings again indicate that electron scattering plays a key role in the electrical and thermal transport properties. The dimensionless figure of merit is thus mainly governed by the electronic properties. These effects obtained at low temperatures with the avoidance of possible thermal fluctuations together offer the physical origin for the excellent thermoelectric performance in this material.
We report $^{59}$Co, $^{93}$Nb, and $^{121}$Sb nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) measurements combined with density functional theory (DFT) calculations on a series of half-Heusler semiconductors, including NbCoSn, ZrCoSb, TaFeSb and NbFeSb, to better understand their electronic properties and general composition-dependent trends. These materials are of interest as potentially high efficiency thermoelectric materials. Compared to the other materials, we find that ZrCoSb tends to have a relatively large amount of local disorder, apparently antisite defects. This contributes to a small excitation gap corresponding to an impurity band near the band edge. In NbCoSn and TaFeSb, Curie-Weiss-type behavior is revealed, which indicates a small density of interacting paramagnetic defects. Very large paramagnetic chemical shifts are observed associated with a Van Vleck mechanism due to closely spaced $d$ bands splitting between the conduction and valence bands. Meanwhile, DFT methods were generally successful in reproducing the chemical shift trend for these half-Heusler materials, and we identify an enhancement of the larger-magnitude shifts, which we connect to electron interaction effects. The general trend is connected to changes in $d$-electron hybridization across the series.