Herein we study the effect alloying Yb onto the octahedral cite of Te doped Mg 3 Sb 1.5 Bi 0.5 has on transport and the material's high temperature stability. We show that the reduction in mobility can be well explained with an alloy scattering argument due to disrupting the Mg octahedral –Mg tetrahedral interaction that is important for placing the conduction band minimum at a location with high valley degeneracy. We note this interaction likely dominates the conducting states across n-type Mg 3 Sb 2 –Mg 3 Bi 2 solid solutions and explains why alloying on the anion site with Bi isn't detrimental to Mg 3 Sb 2 's mobility. In addition to disrupting this Mg–Mg interaction, we find that alloying Yb into the Mg 3 Sb 2 structure reduces its n-type dopability, likely originating from a change in the octahedral site's vacancy formation energy. We conclude showing that while the material's figure of merit is reduced with the addition of Yb alloying, its high temperature stability is greatly improved. This study demonstrates a site-specific alloying effect that will be important in other complex thermoelectric semiconductors such as Zintl phases.
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Improved stability and high thermoelectric performance through cation site doping in n-type La-doped Mg 3 Sb 1.5 Bi 0.5
n-Type conduction in a Mg 3 Sb 1.5 Bi 0.5 system is achieved with La-doping at cation sites with a peak zT > 1. La-doped samples exhibit much higher doping efficiency and dopability compared to other chalcogen-doped samples. This allows greater tunability of the electronic properties. La-doping also significantly improves the thermal stability of n-type Mg 3 Sb 1.5 Bi 0.5 measured via a long-term Hall carrier concentration measurement.
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- NSF-PAR ID:
- 10079412
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Journal of Materials Chemistry A
- Volume:
- 6
- Issue:
- 41
- ISSN:
- 2050-7488
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 19941 to 19946
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
-
Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Journal Article:
- https://doi.org/10.1039/c8ta08975b
