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Impact of grain size on the Seebeck coefficient of bulk polycrystalline thermoelectric materials

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  • Applied Physics
  • Published:
Chinese Science Bulletin

Abstract

Based on the Boltzmann transport equation of electrons and taking the scattering effect of electrons in the grain boundary as the boundary conditions of electrons transport in the grain, we presented a theoretical model for the Seebeck coefficient of bulk polycrystalline thermoelectric materials, and applied it to studying the grain size effect on the Seebeck coefficient. Then we discussed the effects of transmissivity, temperature and the mean free path of electrons on the size effect. The results show that the proposed theoretical model is reasonable and effective and the predicted results for the Seebeck coefficient are in good agreement with the experimental data reported in literature. The bulk polycrystalline materials have notable (big) grain size effects on the Seebeck coefficient, and the influences of transmissivity, temperature and the mean free path of electrons on the Seebeck coefficient are also significant.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Mechanics on Western Disaster and Environment, Ministry of Education and College of Civil Engineering and Mechanics, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, 730000, China

    YuanWen Gao, YueZhou He & LinLi Zhu

Authors
  1. YuanWen Gao
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  2. YueZhou He
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  3. LinLi Zhu
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to YuanWen Gao.

Additional information

This work was supported by the National Basic Research Program of China (Grant No. 2007CB607506), National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 10672070) and Program for New Century Talent of the Ministry of Education (Grant No. NCET06-0896).

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Gao, Y., He, Y. & Zhu, L. Impact of grain size on the Seebeck coefficient of bulk polycrystalline thermoelectric materials. Chin. Sci. Bull. 55, 16–21 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11434-009-0705-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11434-009-0705-2

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