A Novel Experimental Device for Seebeck Coefficient Measurements of Bulk Materials, Thin Films, and Nanowire Composites

Abstract

An experimental setup has been designed and built for measuring the Seebeck coefficient of bulk thermoelectric materials, thin films, and nanowire composites in the temperature range 200–350 K. The setup utilizes a differential method for measuring the Seebeck coefficient of the sample. The sample holder is a simple clamp design, utilizing a spring-loaded mounting system to load and hold the sample between two copper blocks, on which the electrical leads, as well as thermocouples, are mounted. The spring-loaded design also offers fast turn-around times, as the samples can be quickly loaded and unloaded. To measure the Seebeck coefficient, a temperature difference is generated across the sample by using four 10 kΩ resistive heaters mounted in series on one of the copper blocks. The resulting slope of the thermo-emf versus temperature difference plot is used to obtain the Seebeck coefficient at any temperature. Test measurements were carried out on bulk samples of nickel (Ni), bismuth-telluride (Bi2Te3), antimony-telluride (Sb2Te3), as well as thin films and nanowire composites of Ni.