Stability and thermoelectric performance of doped higher manganese silicide materials solidified by RGS (ribbon growth on substrate) synthesis

Abstract Large scale deployment of thermoelectric devices requires that the thermoelectric materials have stable electrical, thermal and mechanical properties under the conditions of operation. In this study we examine the high temperature stability of higher manganese silicide (HMS) materials prepared by the RGS (ribbon growth on substrate) technique. In particular we characterize the effect of element substitution on the structural and electrical changes occurring at the hot side of temperatures of thermoelectric devices relevant to this material (600 °C). Only by using suitable substitution (4% vanadium at the Mn site) can we obtain temperature-independent structural parameters in the range 20 °C–600 °C, a condition that results in stable electrical properties. Additionally, we show that 4% vanadium substitution at the Mn site offers the best thermoelectric figure of merit among the different compositions reported here with ZTmax = 0.52, a value comparable to the state of the art for HMS materials. Our analysis suggests that ionized impurity scattering is responsible for the better performance of this material.