Effect of MXene Addition on the Thermoelectric and Mechanical Properties of Skutterudite CoSb3

Skutterudite CoSb3 is a high-performance thermoelectric material for mid-temperature range applications. When combined with a 2D material, Ti3C2Tx (T represents functional groups such as -F, -OH, and -O) MXene and CoSb3 showed improved electrical conductivity with reduced lattice thermal conductivity values. This work employs the four-phonon scattering mechanism using a modified Debye-Callaway model to show enhanced phonon-phonon scattering in the composite samples. Ti(3)C(2)T(x)MXene is proven to be a viable alternative for nanoinclusions in skutterudites, as evidenced by a 137% rise in the figure of merit (ZT) value at 623 K. At higher temperatures, pristine CoSb3 and CoSb3 + Ti(3)C(2)T(x)MXene composites show bipolar behavior in Seebeck coefficient data. Besides a 127% increase in hardness for the 3 wt % Ti(3)C(2)T(x)MXene-incorporated sample, adding MXene further enhances the load-bearing capacity of skutterudite samples.

Automated summary

This study demonstrates the potential of Ti(3)C(2)T(x)MXene in enhancing the thermoelectric performance of CoSb3 using an improved Debye-Callaway model and a four-phonon scattering mechanism. In the composite samples, the addition of MXene not only improves the electrical conductivity and figure of merit, but also enhances the hardness and load-bearing capacity of the samples.