Influence of nanosized inclusions on the room temperature thermoelectrical properties of a p-type bismuth–tellurium–antimony alloy Original Research Article

Transmission electron microscopy observations and thermoelectrical property measurements (electrical conductivity, Seebeck coefficient and thermal conductivity) at room temperature have been completed on two fully dense polycrystalline p-type bismuth–tellurium–antimony alloy samples. It is shown that the presence of antimony oxide-based nanosized inclusions (controlled as to volume fraction and size distribution), homogeneously dispersed in the surrounding matrix leads to a dimensionless figure of merit (ZT) of ∼1.3 at room temperature. For comparison, when such inclusions are missing the ZT value is only 0.6.