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Solvothermal synthesis of nano-sized skutterudite Co1−xNixSb3 powders

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 October 2013

J.Q. Li*
Affiliation:
College of Materials Science and Engineering, Shenzhen University and Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Special Functional Materials, Shenzhen 518060, China
Z.P. Zhang
Affiliation:
College of Materials Science and Engineering, Shenzhen University and Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Special Functional Materials, Shenzhen 518060, China
R.M. Luo
Affiliation:
College of Materials Science and Engineering, Shenzhen University and Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Special Functional Materials, Shenzhen 518060, China
W.Q. Ao
Affiliation:
College of Materials Science and Engineering, Shenzhen University and Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Special Functional Materials, Shenzhen 518060, China
F.S. Liu
Affiliation:
College of Materials Science and Engineering, Shenzhen University and Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Special Functional Materials, Shenzhen 518060, China
*
a)Author to whom correspondence should be addressed. Electronic mail: [email protected]

Abstract

Nanostructuring is one of the effective approaches to lower the thermal conductivity of thermoelectric materials for improving its figure of merit. The nano-sized uniform skutterudite Co1−xNixSb3 (x = 0, 0.05, 0.075, 0.125, 0.15, and 0.25) thermoelectric powders were synthesized in triethylene glycol solution by using CoCl2, NiCl2, and SbCl3 as precursors and NaBH4 as the reductant. Different synthesis conditions were studied to pursue pure and uniform skutterudite CoSb3 powders. The powders were characterized by X-ray diffraction, field emission scanning electron microscope, and energy-dispersive X-ray analysis. Experimental results show that a Ni-doped skutterudite Co1−xNixSb3 single phase was obtained at 290 °C for 12 h. The powders are spherical, small, and uniform. As x increases from 0 to 0.25, the unit-cell parameter a increases from 0.9044 to 0.9065 nm and the particle size increases from 10 to 30 nm.

Type
Technical Articles
Copyright
Copyright © International Centre for Diffraction Data 2013 

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