McMaster University | Department of Chemistry

Thermoelectric materials are able to convert heat directly into electric energy and vice versa. While suffering from their low efficiency, thermoelectric materials offer advantages in size, reliability and simplicity over conventional technologies. In the search of high performance thermoelectric materials, a family of novel rare-earth antimony suboxides, RE3SbO3 and RE8Sb3O8 (RE = La, Sm, Gd, Ho), was discovered. Their structures were studied by X-ray single crystal and powder diffraction methods. These phases adopt unique monoclinic structures based on “RE4O” tetrahedral units. Bulk Sm and Ho samples were prepared in high purity and were subjected to electrical resistivity measurements. Both the RE3SbO3 and RE8Sb3O8 (RE = Sm, Ho) phases exhibit a semiconductor type electric behavior. The observed physical properties were analyzed using electronic band structure calculations.