Effects of oxide additive on thermoelectricity of FeSi2

Thermoelectricity has been hot issue in these days, because of environmental problems and energy sources deficit. Moreover, material development for thermoelectricity is now busy in oxide and metal or alloy, basically. However, conclusive materials with good performance have not yet been found in application basis. We have studied oxide-added beta-FeSi₂ for these years. Iron disilicide is well known and utilized in relatively higher temperature. In this report, we indicated our successful improvement of performance of beta-FeSi₂ added with Ta₂O₅ showing the figure of merit almost 0.3 times 10^-3/K This was obtained by reducing thermal conductivity and electrical resistivity (a half of standard FeSi₂)