Investigation of Thermal Properties and Thermal Stability of the Sn-Pb-Te System Materials for the Thermoelectric Generator Application

In this work, thermal properties and thermal stability of semiconductor material of Sn-Pb-Te system for middle operation temperature of thermoelectric generator were investigated. The kinetics of the processes in materials, promising for middle temperature thermoelectric generators were evaluated. Kinetic parameters were determined, it was shown that the initial effective activation energy of reaction is 2.3 eV and almost does not change during the reaction. The investigated process is most likely described by the model of second order reaction. Values of the pre-exponential factor were also found. The effective activation energy and pre-exponential factor are related by compensation equation.