High temperature measurement system design for thermoelectric materials in power generation application

Recent interest in thermoelectric materials for power generation applications has initiated the development of a measurement system in our laboratory for characterization of materials in the 80K to 800K temperature range. This system has been specifically designed for measuring thermoelectric power and electrical conductivity as needed for determining the power factor of the measured samples. This is a single sample measurement system based on a continuous flow cryostat. Significant effort has gone into the computer controlled data acquisition and PID controlled temperature stabilization. Investigation of the influence of temperature stability on the measured data will be presented along with important aspects of the system design, development, and testing. Data collected on reference materials and new thermoelectric materials of interest will be presented.