High Pressure Ultrasonic and Transport Studies of Cerium Skutterudite Thermoelectrics

In the effort to find more efficient thermoelectric materials, some skutterudite materials based on CoSb$_{3}$ have shown that these materials have the potential of being effective at elevated temperatures. This work will present high pressure ultrasonic and transport measurements on the cerium filled versions of this parent compount, CeFe$_{4}$Sb${12}$ and CeFe$_{3}$CoSb${12}$. A previous study on these materials showed an anomaly in the equation of state for these materials originally attributed to the vitrification of a Methanol:Ethanol pressure medium. However, the studies performed as a part of this work demonstrate that, while this may be partly to blame, there is some contribution due to a real effect in this material.