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Reliable measurements of the Seebeck coefficient on a commercial system

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 August 2015

Yintu Liu ,
Chenguang Fu ,
Hanhui Xie ,
Xinbing Zhao  and
Tiejun Zhu
Yintu Liu
Affiliation:
State Key Laboratory of Silicon Materials and Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, China
Chenguang Fu
Affiliation:
State Key Laboratory of Silicon Materials and Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, China
Hanhui Xie
Affiliation:
State Key Laboratory of Silicon Materials and Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, China
Xinbing Zhao
Affiliation:
State Key Laboratory of Silicon Materials and Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, China
Tiejun Zhu*
Affiliation:
State Key Laboratory of Silicon Materials and Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, China
*
a)Address all correspondence to this author. e-mail: [email protected]
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Abstract

The Seebeck coefficient is an important parameter of thermoelectric materials, which is routinely measured by commercial or home-made equipment based on different methods. However, due to various temperature offsets in the measurement, the determination of temperature gradient can be inaccurate, leading to a large uncertainty in Seebeck coefficient. To elucidate the influence of the inaccurate temperature gradient on the determination of Seebeck coefficient, an error analysis has been performed on a commercial system. Several potential factors that may affect the establishment of temperature gradient were discussed in detail. A comparison between the single point method and the slope method was made to verify which is more accurate to calculate the Seebeck coefficient from the raw measurement data. It is suggested that the slope method is more preferable and the single point method can also be accurate enough when a relatively large temperature gradient is adopted.

Keywords

Seebeck coefficienterror analysistemperature gradient
Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Materials Research , Volume 30 , Issue 17: Focus Issue: Advances in Thermoelectric Materials II , 14 September 2015 , pp. 2670 - 2677
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 2015 

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