Comparison of Harman and Cooling Couple Methods for Z Determination

A Peltier–Seebeck or Harman type apparatus has been constructed to measure the Seebeclc coefficient, α, thermal conductivity, κ, electrical resistivity, ρ, and the figure of merit, Z, of thermoelectric materials over the range of temperature 150–300 °K while maintaining the sample in an approximately isothermal environment. Errors in the measured values of ρ, Z, α, and κ have been kept within 1, 1.5, 3, and 5% respectively. A comparison of the maximum temperature difference, ΔT max , measured in a cooling test and the value of ΔT max calculated from the values of α, κ, and ρ as a function of temperature measured in the Harman apparatus shows that, for five thermocouples, agreement is obtained within 1.2 °K on the average, with the greatest disparity being 2.5 °K.