Synthesis and thermoelectric properties of InSb alloys by solid reaction

Indium antimonide (InSb) alloy is known to be a good candidate of thermoelectric (TE) material owing to its high carrier mobility and narrow band gap of around 0.18 eV. However, a high TE performance of the InSb compound has not been achieved in InSb because of its high lattice thermal conductivity. In this work, we offered a new strategy of eutectic melting to improve the TE properties by melting method. By introducing Sb vacancies, the thermal conductivity was reduced and TE properties was improved. Meanwhile, the second phase In precipitates in grain boundaries. Therefore, the TE performance of InSb alloy is remarkably enhanced, and the ZT value of InSb0.95 reaches 0.4 which is 4 times higher than that of pristine InSb sample.