Solubility design leading to high figure of merit in low-cost Ce-CoSb3 skutterudites

Yinglu Tang, Riley Hanus, Sinn-wen Chen and G. Jeffrey Snyder ()
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Yinglu Tang: California Institute of Technology
Riley Hanus: Northwestern University
Sinn-wen Chen: National Tsing Hua University
G. Jeffrey Snyder: Northwestern University

Nature Communications, 2015, vol. 6, issue 1, 1-7

Abstract: Abstract CoSb3-based filled skutterudite has emerged as one of the most viable candidates for thermoelectric applications in automotive industry. However, the scale-up commercialization of such materials is still a challenge due to the scarcity and cost of constituent elements. Here we study Ce, the most earth abundant and low-cost rare earth element as a single-filling element and demonstrate that, by solubility design using a phase diagram approach, the filling fraction limit (FFL) x in CexCo4Sb12 can be increased more than twice the amount reported previously (x=0.09). This ultra-high FFL (x=0.20) enables the optimization of carrier concentration such that no additional filling elements are needed to produce a state of the art n-type skutterudite material with a zT value of 1.3 at 850 K before nano-structuring. The earth abundance and low cost of Ce would potentially facilitate a widespread application of skutterudites.

Date: 2015
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DOI: 10.1038/ncomms8584

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