• Journal of Powder Materials
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.110-116
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• 2001

Abstract To investigate the effect of mechanical alloying process to thermoelectric properties of PbTe sintered body, Pb-Te mixed powder with Pb : Te : 1 : 1 composition was mechanically alloyed using tumbler-ball mill. Thermoelectric properties of the sintered body were evaluated by measuring of the Seebeck coefficient and specific electric resistivity from the room temperature to 50$0^{\circ}C$. Sintered body of only mechanically alloyed PbTe powder showed p-type behavior at the room temperature, and occurred type transition from p-type to n-type at about 30$0^{\circ}C$. PbTe sintered body which was fabricated using heat treated powder in $H_2$ atmosphere after mechanical alloying showed stable n-type behavior under 50$0^{\circ}C$. N-type PbTe sintered body fabricated by mechanical alloying process had 4 times higher power factor than that fabricated by the melt-crushing process. Application of a mechanical alloying process to fabricate of n-type PbTe thermoelectric material seemed to be useful to increase the power factor of PbTe sintered body.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.16 no.7
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• pp.412-415
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• 2006

Te-doped $CoSb_3$ was prepared by the encapsulated induction melting, and its doping effects on the thermoelectric properties were investigated. Single phase ${\delta}-CoSb_3$ was successfully obtained by the subsequent annealing at 773 K for 24 hrs. Tellurium atoms acted as electron donors by substituting antimony atoms. Thermoelectric properties were remarkably improved by the appropriate doping. Dimensionless figure of merit was obtained to be 0.83 at 700K for the $CoSb_{2.8}Te_{0.2}$ specimen.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.16 no.6
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• pp.382-385
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• 2006

Ni-doped $CoSb_3$ was prepared by the hot pressing, and its doping effects on the thermoelectric properties were investigated. Single phase ${\delta}-CoSb_3$ was successfully obtained by encapsulated induction melting and the subsequent heat treatment at 773 K for 24 hrs, followed by the hot pressing under 60 MPa at 773 K for 2 hrs. Nickel atoms acted as electron donors by substituting cobalt atoms. Thermoelectric properties were remarkably improved by the Ni doping.

• Proceedings of the Korean Powder Metallurgy Institute Conference
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• 2006.09a
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• pp.688-689
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• 2006

Ni-doped $CoSb_3$ was prepared by the encapsulated induction melting and hot pressing, and its doping effects on the thermoelectric properties were investigated. Single phase $\delta-CoSb_3$ was successfully obtained by the subsequent heat treatment at 773K for 24 hours. Nickel atoms acted as electron donors by substituting cobalt atoms. Thermoelectric properties were remarkably improved by the appropriate doping.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2009.06a
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• pp.212-212
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• 2009

Thermoelectric devices were used to wide range of application. At present, increasing the efficiency of these devices, in particular, through the preparation of materials showing a high thermoelectric figure of merit, Z, $Bi_2Te_3$ and $Sb_2Te_3$ thin films on Si substrates are deposited by flash evaporation method for thermopile sensor applications. In order to enhance the thermoelectric properties of the thin film, annealing in high vacuum is carried out in the temperature range from 200 to $350^{\circ}C$. The microstructure of the film is investigated by XRD and SEM. The resistivity and Seebeck coefficient of the films are measured by Van der Pauw method and hot probe method respectively. At elevating annealing temperature, the crystallinity and thermoelectrical properties of films are improved by increasing the size of grains. At excessive high annealing temperatures, it is shown that Seebeck coefficient of films is decreased because of Te evaporation. By optimizing the annealing conditions, it is possible to obtain a high performance thin film with a thermoelectric properties.

• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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• v.54 no.2
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• pp.75-85
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• 2017

Thermoelectric is a key technology for energy harvesting and solid-state cooling by direct thermal-to-electric energy conversion (or vice versa); however, the relatively low efficiency has limited thermoelectric systems to niche applications such as space power generation and small-scale or high-density cooling. To expand into larger scale power generation and cooling applications such as ATEG (automotive thermoelectric generators) and HVAC (heating, ventilation, and air conditioning), high-performance bulk thermoelectric materials and their low-cost processing are essential prerequisites. Recently, the performance of commercial thermoelectric materials including $Bi_2Te_3$-, PbTe-, skutterudite-, and half-Heusler-based compounds has been significantly improved through non-equilibrium processing technologies for defect engineering. This review summarizes material design approaches for the formation of multi-dimensional and multi-scale defect structures that can be used to manipulate both the electronic and thermal transport properties, and our recent progress in the synthesis of conventional thermoelectric materials with defect structures is described.

• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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• v.54 no.6
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• pp.518-524
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• 2017

A flexible thermoelectric device using body heat has drawn attention as a power source for wearable devices. In this study, thermoelectric thick films were fabricated by cold pressing method using p-type antimony telluride and n-type bismuth telluride powders in accordance with specific loads. Thermoelectric thick films were denser and improved the electrical and thermoelectric properties while increasing the load of the cold pressing. The thickness of the specimen can be controlled by the amount of material; specimens were approximately 700 um in thickness. Flexible thermoelectric devices were manufactured by using the thermoelectric thick films on PI (Polyimide) substrate. The process is cheap, efficient, easy and scalable. Evaluation of power generation performance and flexibility on the fabricated flexible thermoelectric device was carried out. The flexible thermoelectric device has great flexibility and good performance and can be applied to wearable electronics as a power source.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.41-45
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• 2004

P-type $Bi_{0.5}$$Sb_{1.5}$ $Te_3$ thin films were deposited by the flash evaporation technique, and their thermoelectric properties and electronic transport parameters were investigated. The effective mean free path model was adopted to examine the thickness effect on the thermoelectric properties. Annealing effects on the carrier concentration and mobility were also studied, and their variations were analyzed in conjunction with the antisite defects. Seebeck coefficient and electrical resistivity versus inverse thickness showed a linear relationship, and the effective mean free path was found to be 3150$\AA$. No phase transformation and composition change were observed after annealing treatment, but carrier mobility increased due to grain growth. Carrier concentration decreased considerably due to reduction of the antisite defects, so that electrical conductivity decreased and Seebeck coefficient increased. When annealed at 473 K for 1 hr, Seebeck coefficient and electrical conductivity were $160\mu$V/K and 610 $W^{-1}$ $cm^{ -1}$, respectively. Therefore, the thermoelectric quality factor were also enhanced to be $16\mu$W/cm $K^2$.>.

• Proceedings of the Korean Magnestics Society Conference
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• 2013.05a
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• pp.19-20
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• 2013

Thermoelectic properties of the typical thermoelectric host materials, the tellurides and selenides, are known to be noticeably changed by their volume change due to the strain [1]. In the bismuth telluride ($Bi_2Te_3$) crystal, a substitution of rare-earth element by replacing one of the Bi atoms may cause the change of the lattice parameters while remaining the rhombohedral structure of the host material. Using the first-principles approach by the precise full potential linearized augmented plane wave (FLAPW) method [2], we investigated the Ce substitution effect on the thermoelectric transport coefficients for the bismuth telluride, employing Boltzmann's equation in a constant relaxation-time approach fed with the FLAPW wave-functions within the rigid band approximation. Depending on the real process of re-arrangement of atoms in the cell to reach the equilibrium state, $CeBiTe_3$ was found to manifest a metal or a narrow bandgap semiconductor. This feature along with the strong correlation effect originated by the 4f states of Ce affect significantly on the thermoelectric properties. We showed that the position of the strongly localized f-states in energy scale (Fig. 1, f-states are shaded) was found to alter critically the transport properties in this material suggesting an opportunity to improve the thermoelectric efficiency by tuning the external strain which may changing the location of the f-sates.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.15 no.7
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• pp.435-438
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• 2005

Single phase $Zn_4Sb_3$ with $98.5\%$ of theoretical density was successfully produced by direct hot pressing of elemental powders containing $1.2 at\%$ excess Zn for compensating the evaporation during the process. Temperature dependences of thermoelectric properties were investigated from 4 K to 300 K. Seebeck coefficient, electrical conductivity, thermal conductivity as well as thermoelectric figure of merit showed the discontinuity in variation at 242K, indicating the $\alpha-\beta$, phase transformation. Interestingly, it was found that lattice thermal conductivity by phonons is dominant in total thermal conductivity of $\alpha-\beta$. Therefore, it is expected that thermoelectric properties can be improved by reduction of lattice thermal conductivity inducing lattice scattering centers by doping and solid solution.