Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 February 2011
The electrical resistivity, thermoelectric power, and thermal conductivity were investigated for the Al71.6-xMn 17.4Six and Al71.6-xRe 17.4Six (7 ≤ x ≤ 12) 1/1-cubic approximants. A large thermoelectric power ranging from -40 to 90 μV/K and a low thermal conductivity less than 3 W/K·cm were observed at room temperatures. The electrical resistivity at room temperature for these approximants was kept below 4,000 μΩcm, that is much smaller than that in the corresponding quasicrystals. As a result of the large thermoelectric power, the low thermal conductivity, and the low electrical resistivity, large dimensionless figure of merit ZT = 0.10 (n-type) and 0.07 (p-type) were achieved for the Al71.6Re17.4Si11 and Al71.6Mn17.4Si11 at room temperature, respectively.