The effect of YSi2 nanoinclusion on the thermoelectric properties of p-type SiGe alloy

In this research, the p-type Si80Ge20B3 alloys composited with YSi2 nanoinclusions were fabricated by melting spinning and then, spark plasma sintering. The metallic Y was chosen as the source of YSi2 nanoparticles. It was found that the fully dense nanocomposites were formed with the homogeneous distribution of YSi2 nanoinclusions in the SiGe matrix. The thermoelectric measurement showed that YSi2 addition reduces the electrical conductivity but increases the Seebeck coefficient, which was attributed to the decrease in carrier concentration. The thermal conductivity was suppressed for the composite SiGe-1.4%Y, which made this composition to exhibit the largest thermoelectric figure-of-merit (ZT) of 0.52. Figure-of-merit (ZT) and microstructure of the SiGe-x%Y SiGe-1.4%Y.