Enhancement of power factor in n-type PbTe–Cu56Ni42Mn2 alloys synthesized by solid-state reaction method

Abstract

PbTe is a well-known semiconductor material with excellent thermoelectric conversion efficiency in the medium temperature range. In this study, n-type PbTe–Cu56Ni42Mn2 alloys were successfully synthesized using a solid-state reaction method. The rock-salt-type structure of all samples was indicated by XRD measurements. The semi-metallic behavior of PbTe was converted to non-degenerate semiconducting behavior when Cu56Ni42Mn2 was added to PbTe in varying proportions (x = 0, 0.5, 0.7, 1.0, and 1.5%). Carrier concentration increases with increasing Cu56Ni42Mn2. While the Seebeck coefficients remained high above 600 K, the electrical conductivity increased in the PbTe-1% Cu56Ni42Mn2 sample, resulting in a power factor of up to 13.401 μWcm−1K−2 at 773 K. The ZT value achieved in the PbTe-1% Cu56Ni42Mn2 sample was 0.524.