This work reports the enhancement of thermoelectric properties of La_0.5Co₄Sb₁₂ compound due to addition of Al. A polycrystalline Al_xLa_0.5Co₄Sb₁₂ (0 ≤ x ≤ 0.5) skutterudites were successfully prepared by mechanical alloying and spark plasma sintering techniques. The characterization of phase structure and morphology of Al_xLa_0.5Co₄Sb₁₂ bulk samples are examined by XRD and SEM-EDX analysis. The results revealed that the main phase of CoSb₃ skutterudite structure with a small amount of Al were distributed in the grain boundaries for the most of Al_xLa_0.5Co₄Sb₁₂ samples. The thermoelectric measurements of consolidated samples were evaluated from room temperature to 800 K. The electrical resistivity remarkably reduced through the addition of Al to the lowest value of 7.6 μO m at room temperature for Al_0.05La_0.5Co₄Sb₁₂ sample. Moreover, the absolute Seebeck coefficient was significantly improved by Al addition and the highest value of 193 μV/K was observed at 789 K for Al_0.05La_0.5Co₄Sb₁₂ sample. Furthermore, the same formulation showed a significant enhancement on the power factor that reached the maximum value of 4.02 × 10⁻³ W/mK² at 789 K. The thermal conductivity and lattice thermal conductivity were significantly minimized to the value of 1.1 W/mK (at 789 K) and 0.64 W/mK (at 595 K), respectively for Al_0.3La_0.5Co₄Sb₁₂ due to the enhancement of phonon scattering. Additionally, a comprehensive improvement on the dimensionless figure of merit value ZT of 1.36 for Al_0.05La_0.5Co₄Sb₁₂ at 789 K has been achieved.

这项工作报道了由于添加Al增强了La _0.5 Co ₄ Sb ₁₂化合物的热电性能。通过机械合金化和等离子烧结技术成功制备了多晶Al _x La _0.5 Co ₄ Sb ₁₂（0≤x≤0.5）方钴矿。通过XRD和SEM-EDX分析对Al _x La _0.5 Co ₄ Sb ₁₂块状样品的相结构和形貌进行了表征。结果表明，CoSb ₃的主要相大多数Al _x La _0.5 Co ₄ Sb ₁₂样品的晶界中都分布有少量Al的方钴矿结构。在室温至800 K的温度下评估了固结样品的热电测量结果。通过添加Al至室温下Al _0.05 La _0.5 Co ₄ Sb ₁₂样品的最低值7.6μOm，电阻率显着降低。此外，Al的添加明显改善了塞贝克系数的绝对值，Al _0.05 La _0.5 Co ₄ Sb在789 K时观察到的最高值为193μV/ K_12个样本。此外，相同的配方显示出功率因数的显着提高，在789 K时达到4.02×10 ^-3  W / mK ²的最大值。导热率和晶格导热率显着降至1.1 W / mK由于声子散射的增强，Al _0.3 La _0.5 Co ₄ Sb ₁₂分别在789 K和595 K时（在789 K）和0.64 W / mK（在595 K）。另外，已经实现了对于789 K处的Al _0.05 La _0.5 Co ₄ Sb ₁₂的无量纲品质因数ZT 1.36的全面改进。