Rapid synthesis and effect of high temperature and high pressure processing on the structure and thermoelectric properties of clathrate Ba8Cu6Si16Ge24

Ba8Cu6Si16Ge24 clathrate alloys were synthesized by high temperature and high pressure (HPHT) method, and the effect of the different pressures on the structure and thermoelectric properties was investigated. The synthesis time was sharply reduced from a few days to 30 min. The lowest possible thermal conductivity 0.76 Wm−1 K−1 was obtained due to the lattice disorders and dislocations. A relatively good ZT value 0.55 was achieved, which was attributed to both the enhanced power factor and the relatively low thermal conductivity.