Enhanced Thermoelectric Performance of CoSb3 Thin Films by Ag and Ti Co-Doping

The Skutterudites CoSb3 material has been the focus of research for the conversion applications of waste heat to electricity due to its ability to accommodate a large variety of ions in the cages that have been proven effective in improving the thermoelectric performance. Although the co-doped CoSb3 bulk materials have attracted increasing attention and have been widely studied, co-doped CoSb3 thin films have been rarely reported. In this work, Ag and Ti were co-doped into CoSb3 thin films via a facile in situ growth method, and the influence of doping content in the thermoelectric properties was investigated. The results show that all the Ag and Ti co-doped CoSb3 thin films contain a pure well-crystallized CoSb3 phase. Compared to the un-doped thin film, the co-doped samples show simultaneous increase in the Seebeck coefficient and the electrical conductivity, leading to a distinctly enhanced power factor. The high power factor value can reach similar to 0.31 mWm(-1)K(-2) at 623 K after appropriate co-doping, which is two times the value of the un-doped thin film we have been obtained. All the results show that the co-doping is efficient in optimizing the performance of the CoSb3 thin films; the key point is to control the doping element content so as to obtain high thermoelectric properties.

Automated summary

In this study, Ag and Ti were co-doped into CoSb3 thin films via a facile in situ growth method, and the influence of doping content on the thermoelectric properties was investigated. The results showed that all co-doped CoSb3 thin films contained a pure well-crystallized CoSb3 phase. Compared to the undoped thin film, the co-doped samples exhibited an increase in both the Seebeck coefficient and electrical conductivity, leading to a significantly enhanced power factor. The co-doping was found to be efficient in optimizing the performance of the CoSb3 thin films, with the key factor being the control of doping element content to achieve high thermoelectric properties.