Improvement of thermoelectric properties with the addition of Sb to ZnO

The primary phase of the as-sintered Sb2O3-added Zn1−xSbxO (0.01 ≤ x ≤ 0.05) samples was the solid solution of Zn1−xSbxO with a wurtzite structure. The addition of Sb2O3 to ZnO resulted in a decrease in both the grain size and the density, indicating that Sb2O3 inhibits the grain growth of ZnO. The magnitude of the electrical conductivity (σ) and the absolute value of the Seebeck coefficient (|α|) depended strongly on the Sb2O3 content. The incorporation of Sb2O3 to ZnO up to 0.01 yielded higher σ and |α|, resulting in a significant increase in the power factor (σα2). The highest power factor value (3.88 × 10−4 Wm−1 K−2) was attained for Zn0.99Sb0.01O at 1073 K.