Vl. Kuznetsov et Dm. Rowe, High temperature electrical transport properties of the EuFe4Sb12 and YbFe4Sb12 filled skutterudites, J PHYS-COND, 12(36), 2000, pp. 7915-7921
Polycrystalline samples of the filled skutterudites EuFe4Sb12 and YbFe4Sb12
were prepared by direct melting and hot pressing. The samples were charact
erized using x-ray powder diffraction and differential thermal analysis. it
was found that both compounds melt incongruently at peritectic temperature
s of 1023 +/- 5 K for EuPe(4)Sb(12) and 975 +/- 5 K for YbFe4Sb12. At room
temperature these materials possess a positive Seebeck coefficient of 65-67
mu V K-1 and high carrier concentration in the range 5.6 x 10(21)-3.6 x 10
(21) cm(-3). The electrical transport properties were measured over the tem
perature range 100-860 K. For both compounds the electrical resistivity and
Seebeck coefficient gradually increase with increasing temperature and for
YbFe4Sb12 exhibit a maximum at 760-800 K. The estimated ZT value of YbFe4S
b12 is 0.4 at 670 K.