Influence of nanosized inclusions on the room temperature thermoelectrical properties of a p-type bismuth–tellurium–antimony alloy

Abstract Transmission electron microscopy observations and thermoelectrical property measurements (electrical conductivity, Seebeck coefficient and thermal conductivity) at room temperature have been completed on two fully dense polycrystalline p-type bismuth–tellurium–antimony alloy samples. It is shown that the presence of antimony oxide-based nanosized inclusions (controlled as to volume fraction and size distribution), homogeneously dispersed in the surrounding matrix leads to a dimensionless figure of merit ( ZT ) of ∼1.3 at room temperature. For comparison, when such inclusions are missing the ZT value is only 0.6.