A MODIFIED VAN DER PAUW SETUP FOR MEASURING THE RESISTIVITY AND THERMOPOWER OF THERMOELECTRIC MATERIALS OF VARYING THICKNESSES

DALE HITCHCOCK, SPENCER WALDROP, JARED WILLIAMS, TERRY M. TRITT

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

3 Scopus citations

Abstract

In the investigation of thermoelectric (TE) materials as a practical, and efficient, means of power generation/ refrigeration nearly ninety percent of the possible high-efficient binary compounds have been evaluated. But only a few proved to be useful such as Bi2Te3 alloys, PbTe and SiGe to name the most important materials. Therefore, in order to expand the research of high-efficiency TE materials new compounds and methods of efficiency optimization must be explored. There currently exist a vast number of uninvestigated ternary and quaternary materials that could be potential high-efficiency thermoelectric materials. The device and methodology discussed herein deal with rapidly measuring both the electrical resistivity and the Seebeck coefficient of thermoelectric materials, at a set temperature of T ≈ 300 K. Using nontraditional resistivity measurements and rapid, room-temperature thermopower measurements, a reliable and time-efficient means of gauging the power factor (defined below) values of newly synthesized thermoelectric materials is achievable. Furthermore, the efficacy of the van der Pauw technique for measuring the resistivity of thermoelectric materials has been verified. © World Scientific Publishing Company.
Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)1340009
JournalFunctional Materials Letters
Volume06
Issue number05
DOIs
StatePublished - Oct 17 2013
Externally publishedYes

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