FeTaSb and FeMnTiSb as promising thermoelectric materials: An ab initio approach

TL;DR

This study uses first principles calculations to evaluate the thermoelectric properties of FeTaSb and FeMnTiSb, revealing their potential as efficient thermoelectric materials at different temperatures.

Contribution

It introduces two new Fe-based Heusler alloys and assesses their thermoelectric performance using ab initio methods, highlighting their high power factors and potential applications.

Findings

FeTaSb shows high power factor at 1100 K, competitive with FeNbSb.

FeMnTiSb has higher power factor at room temperature than FeNbSb and FeTaSb.

FeMnTiSb can be used for both n-type and p-type thermoelectric legs.

Abstract

Thermoelectricity in principle provides a pathway to put waste heat to good use. Motivated by this we investigate thermal and electrical transport properties of two new Fe-based Heusler alloys, FeTaSb and FeMnTiSb, by a first principles approach and semiclassical Boltzmann transport theory within the constant relaxation-time approximation. We find a high power factor of \textit{p}-doped FeTaSb, competitive with best performing Heusler alloy FeNbSb at 1100 K. The obtained power factor of \textit{n}-doped FeMnTiSb at room temperature is higher than that of both FeNbSb and FeTaSb. Remarkably, FeMnTiSb can be used for both \textit{n}-type and \textit{p}-type legs in a thermoelectric module. The Seebeck coefficients of the two proposed systems are in line with those of earlier reported Heusler alloys. We also provide conservative estimates of the figure of merit for the two systems. Overall, our findings suggest a high temperature thermoelectric potential of FeTaSb while the low cost FeMnTiSb is a viable room temperature thermoelectric candidate material.