Thermoelectric properties of p-type skutterudites YbxFe3.5Ni0.5Sb12 (0.8 ⩽ x ⩽ 1) Original Research Article

p-Type skutterudites, with nominal compositions YbxFe3.5Ni0.5Sb12 (0.8 ⩽ x ⩽ 1), have been synthesized by induction melting with subsequent annealing, and their thermoelectric properties evaluated from 3.5 to 745 K to assess their suitability for thermoelectric-based waste heat recovery applications. We report results for the synthesis and measurements of Seebeck coefficient (S), electrical resistivity (ρ), thermal conductivity (κ), Hall coefficient (RH) and effective mass (m*/m0) of YbxFe3.5Ni0.5Sb12 (0.8 ⩽ x ⩽ 1). Powder X-ray diffraction and electron probe microanalysis show that this system has a narrow filling fraction range of x ∼ 0.84–0.86 for Yb in the crystallographic voids. All samples show positive RH for the entire temperature range studied, with carrier concentrations ranging from 9.6 × 1020 to 2.8 × 1021 cm−3 at room temperature. Relatively high values of S result in high power factors up to 17 μW cm−1 K−2 at room temperature. However, large values of κ and a sharp reduction in the S at high temperature due to bipolar conduction prevent the attainment of high thermoelectric figure of merit.