[T21] Other Functional Materials

[15P-T21-08] Effect of Mn-Sb Additive on Sinterability of Yb_0.3Co₄Sb₁₂ Skutterudite Thermoelectric Materials

*M. Matsuda^1,3, Y. Kamitani², T. Shimada¹, Y. Ohishi³, H. Muta³ (1.Proterial, Ltd., Japan, 2.Proterial, Ltd., Japan, 3.Graduate School of Engineering, Osaka University, Japan)

Keywords:thermoelectric materials, sinterability, Co–Sb-based skutterudite

Thermoelectric material is a functional material to directly generate electricity from exhaust heat and expected as a material to reduce carbon dioxide in the environment. Skutterudite system is an interesting thermoelectric material and exhibits higher dimensionless figure-of-merit (ZT) more than 1.0, however it is necessary to subject higher pressure and temperature to sinter its material powder because of poor sinterability of the skutterudite. In this paper, effect of Mn-Sb additive on sinterability of Yb0.3Co4Sb12 thermoelectric material. The Mn-Sb additive improved sinterability of this material compared with additive-free powder. Thermoelectric properties of Mn-Sb additive contained sample maintained the properties of additive-free material and it becomes possible to manufacture large diameter products.