Thermoelectric properties of sintered thermoelectric semiconductor SiCdoped with Si

Abstract

The thermoelectric properties of the p-type SiC/Si sintered semiconductor have been studied as functions of Si concentration and temperature. The thermal conductivity decreases drastically with Si concentration compared with other dopants such as Al, Ag, Cu and Ni. The figure of merit Z approaches to 3×10^-4 K^-1 at around 750°C. We conclude that the addition of Si is most effective to reduce thermal conductivity for SiC based thermoelectric materials.