Thermoelectric properties of bromine filled CoSb3 skutterudite

Abstract

Historically, the improved thermoelectric performance of skutterudite compounds has largely been driven by the incorporation of electropositive donors on interstitial sites. These “rattlers” serve to optimize both electronic and thermal properties by tuning the carrier concentration and scattering phonons. In this work, we show that interstitial bromine can be incorporated into CoSb₃ and assess the impact on electronic and thermal transport. In contrast to prior high pressure syntheses with iodine, interstitial bromine incorporation is achieved at ambient pressure. Transport properties are stable up to at least 375 °C. Bromine serves as an electronegative acceptor and can induce degenerate (>5 × 10¹⁹ cm⁻³) hole densities. In contrast to other p-type skutterudite compositions, bromine preserves the intrinsically high hole mobility of CoSb₃ while significantly reducing the lattice thermal conductivity. The development of a stable p-type dopant for the interstitial filler site enables the development of skutterudites with both donor and acceptor interstitials to maximize phonon scattering while maintaining the high mobility of CoSb₃.