International Journal of Mechanics and Design
Development of an Automated Load-Controlled Thermopower Measurement Technique for Thermoelectric Materials
Department of Mechanical engineering, BIT, Sindri, Jharkhand, India.
Abstract
The Seebeck coefficient, or thermoelectric power, is crucial. In order to deliver accurate readings over a wide temperature range, a load-based, high-precision thermoelectric power (TEP) measurement device has been designed, constructed, and experimentally validated in this study. The system is based on a differential DC approach and replaces conventional spring-based contact mechanisms with a shifting mechanical load to avoid errors caused by spring contraction, thermal cycling, and contact instability at low temperatures. The instrument can measure small samples, such as wires, thin films, and bulk pellets, with great reproducibility and is integrated with an automated data gathering system. Thermoelectric measurements are supported by extensive structural, spectroscopic, microscopic, and transport characterisation methods. such as X-ray diffraction, electron microscopy, and studies of electrical and thermal transport. The accuracy and performance of the developed setup are verified using high-purity platinum samples, whose measured thermopower values show excellent agreement with data published in the literature. In the temperature range of around 5 K to 330 K, the system shows steady working with low uncertainty and short measurement durations. An intuitive, accurate, and efficient experimental platform for investigating the thermoelectric properties of novel materials—particularly low-dimensional and nanostructured systems—is provided by the developed load-based TEP setup.
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