In recent years, complex Zintl phases such as n-type La3-xTe4 and p-type Yb14MnSb11 have emerged as new high efficiency, high temperature thermoelectric materials with peak zTs of 1.2 at 1275K. The figure of merit, zT, provides a measure of a material’s efficiency in convert a heat gradient into electricity. The high performance of these materials is attributed to their combination of favorable characteristics such as: semi-metallic behavior due to small band gaps, low glass-like lattice thermal conductivity values due to structural complexity and reasonably large Seebeck values near their peak operating temperatures. A green approach to preparing new solid state Zintl phases involves mixing of the elemental reagents and spark plasma sintering the powders to form fully dense phase pure products. The synthesis and properties of some of the materials that we have been able to prepare in this simple manner will be presented.

Spark plasma sintering of Zintl phases

253rd National Meeting (2017)

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