Patent ID: 6069312
Filing Date: 2000-05-30
Classification: H01L

Abstract:
A thermoelectric material having a skutterudite structure, comprising:a first component having at least one non-metal element from the fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth columns of the periodic table including pnicogen elements and chalcogen elements;a second component having at least one transition metal element;a third component having at least one metallic element including a rare-earth element;said first component, said second component, and said third component arranged relative to one another to form said skutterudite structure with thirty-four atomic crystallographic sites including twenty-four non-metal atoms from said first component, eight transition metal atoms from said second component and two metallic atoms from said third component;said twenty-four non-metal atoms and said eight transition metal atoms having an atomic arrangement relative to one another to form a lattice structure indicative of the space group Im3; andrelative quantities of said first component, said second component and said third component with respect to one another being pre-determined so that said thermoelectric material has transport properties of being semimetallic or semiconducting.