Atomic Displacement Parameters and the Lattice Thermal Conductivity of Clathrate-like Thermoelectric Compounds

1999 ◽  
Vol 146 (2) ◽  
pp. 528-532 ◽  
Author(s):  
B.C. Sales ◽  
B.C. Chakoumakos ◽  
D. Mandrus ◽  
J.W. Sharp
2007 ◽  
Vol 1044 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katsushi Tanaka ◽  
Jung-Hwan Kim ◽  
Kyosuke Kishida ◽  
Haruyuki Inui

AbstractEinstein temperatures of guest atoms in Ba-Ge-(Al, In) type-III clathrate compounds have been estimated from the temperature dependence of the atomic displacement parameters determined by synchrotron X-ray powder diffractions. The lowest temperature is obtained for the vibration of Ba(2) atoms along the x-direction, which corresponds to the “rattling motion” of the guest atoms in the compounds. The temperature estimated is significantly low of about 50 K, which agrees with the fact that the compounds have small lattice thermal conductivities of about 0.6 W/mK. Though the lattice thermal conductivity of Ba24Ge88Al12 is larger than that of Ba24Ge88In12, the Einstein temperature of Ba24Ge88Al12 is slightly smaller than that of Ba24Ge88In12. This discrepancy can be explained by the consideration of higher Debye temperature of Ba24Ge88Al12 than that of Ba24Ge88In12, that is, lattice thermal conductivity without “rattling motion” is larger for Ba24Ge88Al12 than that for Ba24Ge88In12.


1998 ◽  
Vol 545 ◽  
Author(s):  
B. C. Sales ◽  
B. C. Chakoumakos ◽  
D. Mandrus ◽  
J. W. Sharp ◽  
N. R. Dilley ◽  
...  

AbstractThe atomic displacement parameters (ADPs) measure the mean-square displacement amplitude of an atom about its equilibrium position in a crystal. It is demonstrated that the ADPs can be used to identify crystalline solids with unusually low lattice thermal conductivties. A low lattice thermal conductivity is essential in the design of thermoelectric materials with improved efficiencies.The atomic displacement parameters (ADPs) have been measured using powder neutron diffraction as a function of temperature for several clathrate-like compounds (RxCo4-yFeySb12, where R= La, Ce, Yb or TI, x=0.22, 0.8, 1, y=0, 1;Tl2SnTe5 and Tl2GeTe5). The ADP data show that in each of the compounds one of the atoms is weakly bound and “rattles” within its atomic cage. This atomic “rattling” severely reduces the ability of these crystals to conduct heat and in some cases the lattice thermal conductivity approaches the theoretical minimum value. In many clathrate-like compounds, the ADP can also be used to estimate the Einstein frequency of the “rattler”, and to predict the existence of localized vibrational modes.


1998 ◽  
Vol 545 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeff W. Sharp ◽  
Brian C. Sales ◽  
David G. Mandrus ◽  
Bryan C. Chakoumakos

AbstractWe present initial assessments of the thermoelectric properties of two ternary tellurides with known crystal structures, Tl2GeTeM5 and Tl2SnTe5. Tl2SnTe5 appears to have a p-type figure of merit about the same as that of Bi2Te3, the best thermoelectric material among binary compounds. A good figure of merit is possible because the lattice thermal conductivity is very low. Based on neutron diffraction data, we have calculated atomic displacement parameters and thermal expansion coefficients. The atomic displacement parameters give some understanding of the low lattice thermal conductivity.


2000 ◽  
Vol 626 ◽  
Author(s):  
B. C. Sales ◽  
B. C. Chakoumakos ◽  
D. Mandrus

ABSTRACTNew bulk thermoelectric compounds are normally discovered with the aid of simple qualitative structure-property relationships. Most good thermoelectric materials are narrow gap semiconductors composed of heavy elements with similar electronegativities. The crystal structures are usually of high symmetry (cubic, hexagonal, and possibly tetragonal), and often contain a large number of atoms per unit cell. In the present work a new structure-property relationship is discussed which links atomic displacement parameters (ADPs) and the lattice thermal conductivity of clathrate-like compounds. For many clathrate-like compounds, in which one of the atom-types is weakly bound and “rattles” within its atomic cage, room temperature ADP information can be used to estimate the room temperature lattice thermal conductivity, the vibration frequency of the “rattler”, and the temperature dependence of the heat capacity. ADPs are reported as part of the crystal structure description, and hence APDs represent some of the first information that is known about a new compound. For most ternary and quaternary compounds, all that is known is its crystal structure. ADP information thus provides a useful screening tool for the large and growing crystallographic databases. Examples of the use and limitations of this analysis are presented for several promising classes of thermoelectric materials.


2005 ◽  
Vol 886 ◽  
Author(s):  
Norihiko L. Okamoto ◽  
Katsushi Tanaka ◽  
Haruyuki Inui

ABSTRACTThe crystal structures of some type-I and -III clathrate compounds in the Ba-Ga-Ge system have been investigated by synchrotron X-ray powder diffraction at room temperature, paying special attention to the changes of the cage structure and the splitting behavior at the guest atom site upon alloying with Ga. For both types of the clathrate compounds, the split distance of the Ba(2) sites increases with the increase in the Ga content, corresponding to the change in the size and shape of the encapsulating polyhedral cage. Lattice thermal conductivity at room temperature has a positive correlation with the atomic displacement parameter (ADPsplit) based on the split-site model but has an inverse correlation with the split distance of the Ba(2) sites, indicating that a dominant factor of reducing the lattice thermal conductivity is not thermal vibration at the split sites but thermal jump among the split sites.


2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (5) ◽  
pp. 602-609
Author(s):  
Adil H. Awad

Introduction: A new approach for expressing the lattice thermal conductivity of diatomic nanoscale materials is developed. Methods: The lattice thermal conductivity of two samples of GaAs nanobeam at 4-100K is calculated on the basis of monatomic dispersion relation. Phonons are scattered by nanobeam boundaries, point defects and other phonons via normal and Umklapp processes. Methods: A comparative study of the results of the present analysis and those obtained using Callaway formula is performed. We clearly demonstrate the importance of the utilised scattering mechanisms in lattice thermal conductivity by addressing the separate role of the phonon scattering relaxation rate. The formulas derived from the correction term are also presented, and their difference from Callaway model is evident. Furthermore their percentage contribution is sufficiently small to be neglected in calculating lattice thermal conductivity. Conclusion: Our model is successfully used to correlate the predicted lattice thermal conductivity with that of the experimental observation.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Aastha Vasdev ◽  
Moinak Dutta ◽  
Shivam Mishra ◽  
Veerpal Kaur ◽  
Harleen Kaur ◽  
...  

AbstractA remarkable decrease in the lattice thermal conductivity and enhancement of thermoelectric figure of merit were recently observed in rock-salt cubic SnTe, when doped with germanium (Ge). Primarily, based on theoretical analysis, the decrease in lattice thermal conductivity was attributed to local ferroelectric fluctuations induced softening of the optical phonons which may strongly scatter the heat carrying acoustic phonons. Although the previous structural analysis indicated that the local ferroelectric transition temperature would be near room temperature in $${\text {Sn}}_{0.7}{\text {Ge}}_{0.3}{\text {Te}}$$ Sn 0.7 Ge 0.3 Te , a direct evidence of local ferroelectricity remained elusive. Here we report a direct evidence of local nanoscale ferroelectric domains and their switching in $${\text {Sn}}_{0.7}{\text {Ge}}_{0.3}{\text {Te}}$$ Sn 0.7 Ge 0.3 Te using piezoeresponse force microscopy(PFM) and switching spectroscopy over a range of temperatures near the room temperature. From temperature dependent (250–300 K) synchrotron X-ray pair distribution function (PDF) analysis, we show the presence of local off-centering distortion of Ge along the rhombohedral direction in global cubic $${\text {Sn}}_{0.7}{\text {Ge}}_{0.3}{\text {Te}}$$ Sn 0.7 Ge 0.3 Te . The length scale of the $${\text {Ge}}^{2+}$$ Ge 2 + off-centering is 0.25–0.10 Å near the room temperatures (250–300 K). This local emphatic behaviour of cation is the cause for the observed local ferroelectric instability, thereby low lattice thermal conductivity in $${\text {Sn}}_{0.7}{\text {Ge}}_{0.3}{\text {Te}}$$ Sn 0.7 Ge 0.3 Te .


Minerals ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 272
Author(s):  
Seungyeol Lee ◽  
Huifang Xu ◽  
Hongwu Xu ◽  
Joerg Neuefeind

The crystal structure of moganite from the Mogán formation on Gran Canaria has been re-investigated using high-resolution synchrotron X-ray diffraction (XRD) and X-ray/neutron pair distribution function (PDF) analyses. Our study for the first time reports the anisotropic atomic displacement parameters (ADPs) of a natural moganite. Rietveld analysis of synchrotron XRD data determined the crystal structure of moganite with the space group I2/a. The refined unit-cell parameters are a = 8.7363(8), b = 4.8688(5), c = 10.7203(9) Å, and β = 90.212(4)°. The ADPs of Si and O in moganite were obtained from X-ray and neutron PDF analyses. The shapes and orientations of the anisotropic ellipsoids determined from X-ray and neutron measurements are similar. The anisotropic ellipsoids for O extend along planes perpendicular to the Si-Si axis of corner-sharing SiO4 tetrahedra, suggesting precession-like movement. Neutron PDF result confirms the occurrence of OH over some of the tetrahedral sites. We postulate that moganite nanomineral is stable with respect to quartz in hypersaline water. The ADPs of moganite show a similar trend as those of quartz determined by single-crystal XRD. In short, the combined methods can provide high-quality structural parameters of moganite nanomineral, including its ADPs and extra OH position at the surface. This approach can be used as an alternative means for solving the structures of crystals that are not large enough for single-crystal XRD measurements, such as fine-grained and nanocrystalline minerals formed in various geological environments.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document