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Dalton Transactions

The international journal for inorganic, organometallic and bioinorganic chemistry



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Dalton Trans., 2010, 39, 1118 - 1123, DOI: 10.1039/b914712h

High-temperature transport properties of complex antimonides with anti-Th3P4 structure

A. Chamoire, F. Gascoin, C. Estournès, T. Caillat and J.-C. Tédenac

Polycrystalline samples of R4Sb3 (R = La, Ce, Sm and Yb) and Yb4-xRxSb3 (R = Sm and La) have been quantitatively synthesized by high-temperature reaction. They crystallize in the anti-Th3P4 structure type (I3d, no. 220). Structural and chemical characterizations have been performed by X-ray diffraction and electron microscopy with energy dispersive X-ray analysis. Powders have been densified by spark plasma sintering (SPS) at 1300 °C under 50 MPa of pressure. Transport property measurements show that these compounds are n-type with low Seebeck coefficient except for Yb4Sb3 that shows a typical metallic behavior with hole conduction. By partially substituting Yb by a trivalent rare earth we successfully improved the thermoelectric figure of merit of Yb4-xRxSb3 up to 0.75 at 1000 °C.

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