Experimental study of the thermoelectric properties of YbH2

Abstract

In this study, metal hydride YbHx was successfully fabricated by the Sievert’s method. The crystal structure and composition were confirmed by X-ray diffraction pattern analysis and the measured hydrogen pressure change during the hydrogenation process. The Seebeck coefficient was negative and strongly depended on the H/Yb ratio. The thermal conductivity was approximately 6–10 W m−1 K−1 at room temperature, which is lower than the calculated thermal conductivity for YbH2 using a modified Slack’s model. This is the first report on the experimental study of hydrides as TE materials.