Skutterudite thermoelectric materials

Patent Pending Recently, skutterudite materials have sparked the interest of researchers in search of new thermoelectrics[27] These structures are of the form (Co,Ni,Fe)(P,Sb,As) 3 and are cubic with space group Im3. Unfilled, these materials contain voids into which low-coordination ions (usually rare earth elements) can be inserted in order to alter thermal conductivity by producing sources for lattice phonon scattering and decrease thermal conductivity due to the lattice without reducing electrical conductivity.[28] Such qualities make these materials exhibit PGEC behavior.