Use of Photothermally Generated Seebeck Voltage for Thermal Characterization of Thermoelectric Materials

A simple and accurate experimental procedure to measure simultaneously the thermal properties (conductivity, diffusivity, and effusivity) of thermoelectric (TE) materials using their Seebeck voltage is proposed. The technique is based on analysis of a periodically oscillating thermoelectric signal generated from a TE material when it is thermally excited using an intensity-modulated laser source. A self-normalization procedure is implemented in the presented method using TE signals generated by changing the laser heating from one side to another of the TE material. Experiments are done on a polyaniline carbon nanohybrid (6.6 wt.% carbon nanotubes), yielding a thermal conductivity of 1.106 ± 0.001 W/m-K. The results are compared with the results from photothermal infrared radiometry experiments.