Interest of the differential thermal analysis on the characterization of a thermoelectric material: ZnSb

• Solidification process of ZnSb with a good control of the composition of the phases is now available.
• Thermal analysis is a fruitful method to determine small antimony contents in the ingots.
• Tammann method is explained and used in this study.
• Thanks to Tamman relation in ZnSb samples synthesized by solidification routes, the antimony content can be determined.
• We can see in this paper the influence of the presence of antimony on the thermoelectric properties of the materials.

We report the synthesis of ZnSb a thermoelectric material by melting, quenching and annealing. Due to the non-stoichiometry of the ZnSb compound, an antimony phase is present in the synthesized ingots. The presence of this secondary phase gives rise to discrepancies in the thermoelectric properties. This study shows an original way to detect and to quantify the percentage of antimony present in the ingot. Thanks to this analysis, we were able to synthesize pure ZnSb. Then after spark plasma sintering the thermoelectric characterization of the sample was performed and the obtained results can be considered as a reference in the use and development of this material in thermoelectric devices.

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