In thermoelectric and other inorganic materials research, the significance of half-Heusler (HH) compositions following the 18-electron rule has drawn interest in developing and exploiting the potential of intermetallic compounds. For the fabrication of thermoelectric modules, in addition to high-performance materials, having both p- and n-type materials with compatible thermal expansion coefficients is a prerequisite for module development. In this work, the p-type to n-type transition of valence balanced/unbalanced HH composition of Mg1-xVxNiSb was demonstrated by changing the Mg:V chemical ratio. The Seebeck coefficient and power factor of Ti-doped Mg0.57V0.33Ti0.1NiSb are -130 μV K-1 and 0.4 mW m-1 K-2 at 400 K, respectively. In addition, the reduced lattice thermal conductivity (κL < 2.5 W m-1 K-1 at 300 K) of n-type compositions was reported to be much smaller than κL of conventional HH materials. As high thermal conductivity has long been an issue for HH materials, the synthesis of p- and n-type Mg1-xVxNiSb compositions with low lattice thermal conductivity is a promising strategy for producing high-performance HH compounds. Achieving both p- and n-type materials from similar parent composition enabled us to fabricate a thermoelectric module with maximum output power Pmax ∼ 63 mW with a temperature difference of 390 K. This finding supports the benefit of exploring the huge compositional space of valence balanced/unbalanced quaternary HH compositions for further development of thermoelectric devices.
Keywords: alloying; half-Heusler; p-n transition; thermal conductivity; thermoelectrics.