• Proceedings of the Materials Research Society of Korea Conference
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• 2007.11a
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• pp.120.2-120.2
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• 2007

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.16 no.6
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• pp.377-381
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• 2006

Skutterudite $CoSb_3$ doped with nickel was prepared by encapsulated induction melting, and its doping effects on thermoelectric properties were investigated. Single phase ${\delta}-CoSb_3$ was successfully obtained by encapsulated induction melting and subsequent heat treatment at 773 K for 24 h. Nickel atoms acted as electron donors by substituting cobalt atoms. Thermoelectric properties were remarkably improved by appropriate heat treatment and doping, and they were closely related to phase transitions and dopant activation. The maximum ZT(dimensionless figure of merit) was achieved as 0.2 at 600 K for the $Co_{0.93}Ni_{0.07}Sb_3$ specimen.

• Korean Journal of Metals and Materials
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• v.56 no.11
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• pp.822-828
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• 2018

P-type Ce/Yb-filled skutterudites were synthesized, and their charge transport and thermoelectric properties were investigated with partial double filling and charge compensation. In the case of $(Ce_{1-z}Yb_z)_{0.8}Fe_4Sb_{12}$ without Co substitution, the marcasite ($FeSb_2$) phase formed alongside the skutterudite phase, but the generation of the marcasite phase was inhibited by increasing Co concentration. The electrical conductivity decreased with increasing temperature, exhibiting degenerate semiconductor behavior. The Hall and Seebeck coefficients were positive, which confirmed that the specimens were p-type semiconductors with holes as the major carriers. The carrier concentration decreased as the concentration of Ce and Co increased, which led to decreased electrical conductivity and increased Seebeck coefficient. The thermal conductivity decreased due to a reduction in electronic thermal conductivity via Co substitution, and due to decreased lattice thermal conductivity via double filling of Ce and Yb. $(Ce_{0.25}Yb_{0.75})_{0.8}Fe_{3.5}Co_{0.5}Sb_{12}$ exhibited the greatest dimensionless figure of merit (ZT = 0.66 at 823 K).

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.20 no.6
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• pp.326-330
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• 2010

$CoSb_3$ Skutterudites materials have high potential for thermoelectric application at mid-temperature range because of their superior thermoelectric properties via control of charge carrier density and substitution of foreign atoms. Improvement of thermoelectric properties is expected for the ternary solid solution developed by substitution of foreign atoms having different valances into the $CoSb_3$ matrix. In this study, ternary solid solutions with a stoichiometry of $Co_{1-x}Ni_xSb_3$ x = 0.01, 0.05, 0.1, 0.2, $CoSb_{3-y}Te_y$, y = 0.1, 0.2, 0.3 were prepared by the Spark Plasma Sintering (SPS) system. Before the SPS synthesis, the ingots were synthesized by vacuum induction melting and followed by annealing. For phase analysis X-ray powder diffraction patterns were checked. All the samples were confirmed as single phase; however, with samples that were more doped than the solubility limit some secondary phases were detected. All the samples doped with Ni and Te atoms showed a negative Seebeck coefficient and their electrical conductivities increased with the doping amount up to the solubility limit. For the samples prepared by SPS the maximum value for dimensionless figure of merit reached 0.26, 0.42 for $Co_{0.9}Ni_{0.1}Sb_3$, $CoSb_{2.8}Te_{0.2}$ at 690 K, respectively. These results show that the SPS method is effective in this system and Ni/Te dopants are also effective for increasing thermoelectric properties of this system.

• Journal of the Korean Crystal Growth and Crystal Technology
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.30-34
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• 2010

$CoSb_3$-based skutterudite compounds are promising candidates as thermoelectric (TE) materials used in intermediate temperature region. In this study, sintering of $CoSb_3$ powder and joining of $CoSb_3$ to copper-molybdenum electrode have been simultaneously performed by spark plasma sintering technique. The Ti foil was used for preventing the diffusion of copper into $CoSb_3$ and the Cu : Mo = 3 : 7 Vol. ratio composition was selected by the consideration of thermal expansion coefficients. The insertion of Ti interlayer between Cu-Mo and $CoSb_3$ was effective to join $CoSb_3$ to Cu-Mo by forming an intermediate layer of $TiSb_2$ at the Ti-$CoSb_3$ boundary. However, the formation of TiSb and TiCoSb intermediate layers deteriorated the joining properties by the generation of cracks in the interface of intermediate layer/$CoSb_3$ and intermediate/intermediate layers.

• 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.

• 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.7
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• pp.435-438
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• 2006

The hot pressing was employed to prepare Fe-doped $CoSb_3$ skutterudites and their thermoelectric properties were investigated. Single phase ${\delta}-CoSb_3$ was successfully obtained by the hot pressing under 60MPa at 773 K for 2 hrs. Iron atoms acted as electron acceptors by substituting cobalt atoms. Thermoelectric properties were remarkably improved by the appropriate doping. $Co_{0.7}Fe_{0.3}Sb_3$ was found as an optimum composition for the best thermoelectric property in this work.

• 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.