Nanostructured skutterudite-related compound Fe0.25Ni0.25Co0.5Sb3 was synthesized by a solvothermal method using FeCl3, NiCl2, CoCl2, and SbCl3 as the precursors and NaBH4 as the reductant. The solvothermally synthesized powders consisted of fine granules with an average particle size of tens of nanometers. The bulk material was prepared by hot pressing the powders. Transport property measurements indicated a heavily doped semiconductor behavior with n-type conduction. The thermal conductivity is about 1.83 W·m-1·K-1 at room temperature and decreases to 1.57 W·m-1·K-1 at 673 K. The low thermal conductivity is attributed to small grain size and high porosity. A maximum dimensionless figure of merit of 0.15 is obtained at 673 K.
Quaternary alloys Mg2Sn0.4Si0.6-xGex （x=0, 0.02, 0.05, 0.08 0.1, and 0.2） were prepared using induction melting followed by hot-pressing. Relative densities of the sintered samples were over 97% of the theoretical values. Multiple phases were detected in the samples. It was found that the Seebeck coefficient was sensitive to the content of Mg2Ge and a maximum value of about 350 μV-K^-1 was obtained. The introduction of Ge increases the electrical conductivity and the thermal conductivity simultaneously. The mechanism of this phenomenon was discussed. A maximum dimensionless figure of merit, ZT, of about 0.28 was obtained for Mg2Sn0.4Si0.55Ge0.05 at 550 K.
