A novel approach to thermoelectrics materials research of skutterudites

In recent years, attention has been refocused on thermoelectric materials research because of the interesting crystal structure and transport properties of the skutterudite family of compounds. The interest in this material system arises from its marked reduction in lattice thermal conductivity where the voids in the crystal structure are filled with “guest” atoms. The disorder resulting from these atomic inclusions acts as an excellent phonon-scattering mechanism, although this mechanism(s) is not as yet totally understood. In this paper we introduce a novel synthesis approach for the continuing investigation of this interesting crystal system