In Situ Growth of a Yb2O3 Layer for Sublimation Suppression for Yb14MnSb11 Thermoelectric Material for Space Power Applications

Abstract

The compound Yb14MnSb11 is a p-type thermoelectric material of interest to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) as a candidate replacement for the state-of-the-art Si-Ge used in current radioisotope thermoelectric generators (RTGs). Ideally, the hot end of this leg would operate at 1000°C in the vacuum of space. Although Yb14MnSb11 shows the potential to double the value of the thermoelectric figure of merit (zT) over that of Si-Ge at 1000°C, it suffers from a high sublimation rate at elevated temperatures and would require a coating in order to survive the required RTG lifetime of 14 years. The purpose of the present work is to measure the sublimation rate of Yb14MnSb11 and to investigate sublimation suppression for this material. This paper reports on the sublimation rate of Yb14MnSb11 at 1000°C (∼3 × 10−3 g/cm2 h) and efforts to reduce the sublimation rate with an in situ grown Yb2O3 layer. Despite the success in forming thin, dense, continuous, and adherent oxide scales on Yb14MnSb11, the scales did not prove to be sublimation barriers.