Thermoelectric properties of chemically substituted skutterudites YbyCo4SnxSb12-x

We report the results of a study of thermoelectric properties of chemically substituted quasiternary materials related to the recently discovered filled skutterudite compound YbFe4Sb12. The study explored partial filling at the Yb site as well as chemical doping with Sn at the Sb site in an attempt to optimize the thermoelectric figure of merit ZT in the system YbyCo4SnxSb12-x. Our measurements of these physical quantities from room temperature down to T=10 K indicate that, in our study, only the alloy Yb0.44Co4Sb12 possessed thermoelectric properties that are improved over the parent compound YbFe4Sb12, attaining a value of ZT=0.1 at T=300 K. (C) 2000 American Institute of Physics. [S0021- 8979(00)03116-9].