A Simple and Portable Setup for Thermopower Measurements

Thermoelectric energy conversion technology has received significant attention because of its promising applications and environmentally clean nature. The innovative design of efficient thermoelectric materials is assisted by simple and reliable techniques for fast and accurate testing. Here, a simple approach for rapid measurement of the Seebeck coefficient is described using commonly available materials based on hot and cold probes; both probes are heated by built-in microheaters. A spring-loaded sample mounting arrangement provides easy sample loading/unloading. The setup is suitable for measurements on a wide range of materials, such as pellets, films, and even soft surfaces without damage. Several known thermoelectric materials, such as alumel, bismuth, and silicon, yielded values close to reported ones. The setup is very compact, simple, fast, low cost, and reliable to develop as a laboratory characterization tool.