Thermoelectric Properties of β-Zn₄Sb₃ Thin Films Deposited on Polyimide Flexible Substrate

Abstract:

Due to the high-performance in the medium temperature application, β-Zn₄Sb₃ thermoelectric material has been received much attention. It is found that low dimensional thin film can improve the thermoelectric properties of materials by quantum local area effect and interface effect in recent years. In this paper, the β-Zn₄Sb₃ thin film was prepared on polyimide flexible substrate by DC magnetron co-sputtering method. The results showed that the thin film exhibited predominately ZnSb phases when the thin film was prepared by DC magnetron sputtering using Zn₄Sb₃ alloy target. It is suggested that the element Zn has high saturated vapor pressure and the thin film is lack of Zn due to the evaporation during the heat treatment process. We further adopted co-deposition Zn and Zn₄Sb₃ by DC magnetron co-sputtering to supplement the content of Zn. The sputtering power of Zn₄Sb₃ is fixed and Zn is set to 21W, 27W and 34W, respectively. The results indicated that the thin films transformed from ZnSb phase into β-Zn₄Sb₃ phase after Zn added. EDS analysis demonstrated that the atomic ratio of Zn:Sb was approach 4:3, and a slightly surplus of Zn. The thermoelectric properties of thin films with β-Zn₄Sb₃ phase were improved obviously.

• Periodical: Materials Science Forum (Volume 847)
• Pages: 166-170
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.4028/www.scientific.net/MSF.847.166
• Online since: March 2016
• Authors: Feng Li, Ping Fan, Jing Ting Luo, Zhuang Hao Zheng, Guang Xing Liang, Ying Zhong
• Keywords: Sputtering, Thermoelectric Thin Film, β-Zn₄Sb₃

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DOI: 10.1002/adma.201104947