2021 Volume 35 Issue 2 Pages 49-53
Research and development using high-throughput methods is being conducted to quickly evaluate the structure, composition, and properties of thermoelectric conversion materials. The high-throughput method is a method of preparing a multi-component sample in one experiment and performing chemical analysis by non-destructive inspection and scanning property evaluation. In this study, thermal effusivity distribution of the PbTe-Sb2Te3 compounds, which was the candidate composition as the thermoelectric materials, was measured by using Thermal Microscope (TM) to determine the composition with the lowest thermal effusivity among the PbTe-Sb2Te3 compounds. In these results, it was revealed that Pb2Sb6Te11 single phase (D2) has the lowest thermal effusivity among PbTe-Sb2Te3 compounds, and that Pb2Sb6Te11 can be a promising candidate for thermoelectric conversion material from the viewpoint of thermal conductivity. Accordingly, it was confirmed that the thermophysical microscope is a significant tool as a method for evaluating the thermophysical properties in the high throughput method.
