2001 Volume 42 Issue 7 Pages 1445-1450
High-purity single crystalline B4C, several cm in size, has been prepared by a Floating Zone method. The electrical conductivity, Hall mobility, Seebeck coefficient and thermal conductivity are measured from room temperature to 1023 K . The electrical conductivity is about four times higher than that of sintered B4C . The mobility has increased with increasing temperature, indicating hopping conduction of charge carriers. The Seebeck coefficient is 240–260 \\microVK−1, almost independent of temperature. The thermal conductivity is about twice higher than that of sintered B4C . The thermoelectric figure-of-merit is also higher than that of sintered B4C, being 4.2×10−5 K−1 at 1100 K.
