Electronic band structure, magnetic, transport and thermodynamic properties of In-filled skutterudites InxCo4Sb12

Abstract

The thermoelectric and thermodynamic properties of polycrystalline InxCo4Sb12 (0.0 ⩽ x ⩽ 0.26) skutterudites were investigated and analysed between 2 and 800 K by means of electrical resistivity, thermopower, thermal conductivity and specific heat measurements. Hall effect, sound velocity and thermal expansion measurements were also made in order to gain insights into the transport and elastic properties of these compounds. The impact of the In filling on the crystal structure as well as the thermal dynamics of the In atoms were tracked down to 4 K using powder neutron diffraction experiments. Analyses of the transport data were compared with the evolution of the electronic band structure with x determined theoretically within the Korringa–Kohn–Rostoker method with the coherent potential approximation. These calculations indicate that In gives rise to a remarkably large p-like density of states located at the conduction band edge. The electrical properties show typical trends of heavily doped semiconductors regardless of the In content. The thermal transport in CoSb3 is strongly influenced by the presence of In in the voids of the crystal structure resulting in a drop in the lattice thermal conductivity values in the whole temperature range. The low value of the Grüneisen parameter suggests that this decrease mainly originates from enhanced mass-fluctuations and point-defect scattering mechanisms. The highest thermoelectric figure of merit ZT ∼ 1.0 at 750 K was achieved at the maximum In filling fraction, i.e. for x = 0.26.