• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 2011.06a
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• pp.859-860
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• 2011

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2014.02a
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• pp.304.2-304.2
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• 2014

Chalcogenides (Te,Se) and pnictogens(Bi,Sb) materials have been widely investigated as thermoelectric materials. Especially, Bi2Te3 (Bismuth telluride) compound thermoelectric materials in thin film and nanowires are known to have the highest thermoelectric figure of merit ZT at room temperature. Currently, the thermoelectric material research is mostly driven in two directions: (1) enhancing the Seebeck coefficient, electrical conductivity using quantum confinement effects and (2) decreasing thermal conductivity using phonon scattering effect. Herein we demonstrated influence of annealing temperature on structural and thermoelectrical properties of Bismuth-telluride-selenide ternary compound thin film. Te-rich Bismuth-telluride-selenide ternary compound thin film prepared co-deposited by thermal evaporation techniques. After annealing treatment, co-deposited thin film was transformed amorphous phase to Bi2Te3-Bi2Te2Se1 polycrystalline thin film. In the experiment, to investigate the structural and thermoelectric characteristics of Bi2Te3-i2Te2Se1 films, we measured Rutherford Backscattering spectrometry (RBS), X-ray diffraction (XRD), Raman spectroscopy, Scanning eletron microscopy (SEM), Transmission electron microscopy (TEM), Seebeck coefficient measurement and Hall measurement. After annealing treatment, electrical conductivity and Seebeck coefficient was increased by defect states dominated by selenium vacant sites. These charged selenium vacancies behave as electron donors, resulting in carrier concentration was increased. Moreover, Thermal conductivity was significantly decreased because phonon scattering was enhanced through the grain boundary in Bi2Te3-Bi2Te2Se1 polycrystalline compound. As a result, The enhancement of thermoelectric figure-of-merit could be obtained by optimal annealing treatment.

• Journal of the Korean Electrochemical Society
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.55-59
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• 2017

In this study, thermoelectric characteristics of perovskite $La_{0.5}Ca_{0.5}MnO_3$ (LCMO) nanomaterials were investigated by theoretical simulation and experimental analysis. Thermoelectric power factors calculated by DFT simulation were gradually enhanced as increase in annealing temperature. Maximum power factor was obtained with high magnitude of $S^2{\sigma}=566{\mu}W/m{\cdot}K^2$ at 1100 K through a dominant improvement of Seebeck coefficient compared with electrical conductivity. Experimentally, the LCMO nanomaterials were hydrothermally synthesized and then treated by post thermal annealing with temperature variation. X-ray diffraction and SEM analysis illustrated that LCMO exhibited orthorhombic perovskite structures with small grain size of 16~19 nm over 873 K. The results directly confirmed that improvement of crystallinity and decrease of mean grain size given by post thermal annealing lead to enhancements of electrical conductivity and Seebeck coefficient, respectively.

• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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• v.40 no.11
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• pp.1106-1112
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• 2003

For the purpose of making clear the role of oxygen in the thermoelectric properties of FeSi$_2$, thermoelectric measurements and spectroscopic characterization were conducted for the oxidized specimens fabricated from ($\alpha$+$\varepsilon$)-phases and/or $\beta$-phase. Addition of oxygen to FeSi$_2$ prevented both densification during sintering and transformation from metallic phases to semiconducting phase during annealing treatment. In an specimens, electrical conductivity and thermal conductivity decreased with oxidation time. The Seebeck coefficient was positive and small for pure FeSi$_2$. And/or the oxidized specimens fabricated from ($\alpha$+$\varepsilon$)-phases. However, it was negative and showed a maximum peak at about 500 K for the oxidized FeSi$_2$ fabricated from $\beta$-phase. The value of maximum peak increased with oxidation time.

• Proceedings of the Materials Research Society of Korea Conference
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• 2006.05a
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• pp.24.1-24.1
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• 2006

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.27 no.8
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• pp.416-421
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• 2017

V-substituted $SrTiO_3$ thermoelectric oxide materials were fabricated by the conventional solid state reaction method. From X-ray diffraction pattern analysis, it can be clearly seen that almost every vanadium atom incorporated into the $SrTiO_3$ provided charge carriers. The electrical conductivity ${\sigma}$, Seebeck coefficient S, and thermal conductivity k were investigated in a high temperature regime above 1000 K. The addition of vanadium significantly reduced the thermal conductivity and enhanced the Seebeck coefficient, as well as the electrical conductivity, thus enhancing the ZT value. A maximum ZT value of 0.084 at 673 K was observed for the sample with 1.0 mole% of vanadium substitution. In this study, the reason for the enhanced thermoelectric properties via vanadium addition was also investigated.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.16 no.9
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• pp.529-532
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• 2006

Sn-filled $Co_8Sb_{24}$ skutterudites were synthesized by the encapsulated induction melting process. Single ${\delta}-phase$ was successfully obtained by subsequent annealing and confirmed by X-ray diffraction analysis. Temperature dependences of Seebeck coefficient, electrical resistivity and thermal conductivity were examined from 300 K to 700 K. The positive Seebeck coefficient confirmed the p-type conductivity of the Sn-filled $Co_8Sb_{24}$. Electrical resistivity increased with increasing temperature, which shows that the Sn-filled $Co_8Sb_{24}$ skutterudite is a highly degenerate semiconductor. Thermal conductivity was reduced by Sn-filling because the filler atoms acted as phonon scattering centers in the skutterudite lattice. Thermoelectric figure of merit was enhanced by Sn filling and its optimum filling content was considered to be $z{\leq}0.5$ in the $Sn_zCo_8Sb_{24}$ system.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.16 no.5
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• pp.312-317
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• 2006

Binary skutterudite $CoSb_3$ compounds were prepared by the encapsulated induction melting (EIM) process, and their thermoelectric, microstructural and mechanical properties were examined. Single-phase ${\delta}-CoSb_3$ was successfully produced by the EIM and subsequent heat treatment at 773 K-873 K for 24 hours in vacuum. Seebeck coefficient increased with increasing heat treatment temperature up to 673 K, showing the positive signs in the range of measuring temperature. However, the samples heat-treated at 773 K-873 K showed negative Seebeck coefficient from room temperature to 400 K, while it showed positive signs above 400 K. Electrical resistivity decreased with increasing temperature, showing typical semiconducting conductivity. Thermal conductivity decreased drastically with increasing heat-treatment temperature. This is closely related with the phase transition to ${\delta}-CoSb_3$.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.141-146
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• 2020

Thermoelectric Bi₂Te₃ thin films were synthesized by a co-sputtering method at 300℃. A Fe dopant was considered to enhance the thermoelectric properties of the system. The Seebeck coefficient of the Fe-doped films increased whereas the electrical conductivity decreased. As a result, the power factor of the system increased owing to the enhanced Seebeck coefficient. Grain growth inhibition was detected in the Fe-doped system, which produced more grain boundaries in the Fe-doped films than in the undoped system. The increased grain boundary scattering was deemed to be effective for a reduced thermal conductivity. This is advantageous for the preparation of high-performance thermoelectric films.

• Journal of Powder Materials
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.107-112
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• 2010

Carbon-nanotube-embedded bismuth telluride (CNT/$Bi_2Te_3$) matrix composites were fabricated by a powder metallurgy process. Composite powders, whereby 5 vol.% of functionalized CNTs were homogeneously mixed with $Bi_2Te_3$ alloying powders, were successfully synthesized by using high-energy ball milling process. The powders were consolidated into bulk CNT/$Bi_2Te_3$ composites by spark plasma sintering process at $350^{\circ}C$ for 10 min. The fabricated composites showed the uniform mixing and homogeneous dispersion of CNTs in the $Bi_2Te_3$ matrix. Seebeck coefficient of CNT/$Bi_2Te_3$ composites reveals that the composite has n-type semiconducting characteristics with values ranging $-55\;{\mu}V/K$ to $-95\;{\mu}V/K$ with increasing temperature. Furthermore, the significant reduction in thermal conductivity has been clearly observed in the composites. The results showed that CNT addition to thermoelectric materials could be useful method to obtain high thermoelectric performance.