Investigation of the thermal conductivity of the pentatellurides (Hf1-XZrXTe5) using the parallel thermal conductance technique.

Abstract

ABSTRACTThe pentatelluride materials (Hf1-XZrXTe5) have recently garnered much interest as a potential low temperature thermoelectric material. Their power factor exceeds that of the current Bi2Te3 materials over the temperature range 150 K < T < 350 K. A formidable challenge has been the capability of measuring the thermal conductivity of small needle-like samples (2.0 × 0.05 × 0.1 mm3) such as pentatellurides (HfXZr1-XTe5) due to heat loss and radiation effects. However in order to fully evaluate any material for potential thermoelectric use, the determination of the thermal conductivity of the material is necessary. We have recently developed a new technique called the parallel thermal conductance (PTC) technique to measure the thermal conductivity of such small samples. In this paper we describe the PTC method and measurements of the thermal conductivity of the pentatelluride materials will be presented for the first time. The potential of these materials for low temperature thermoelectric applications will be further evaluated given these results as well as future work and directions will be discussed.