User manual for : Seebeck Effect Experiment

Theory: Introduction:
Thermoelectric devices are solid state devices that convert thermal energy from a temperature gradient into electrical energy (Seebeck effect) or convert electrical energy into a temperature gradient (Peltier effect). Seebeck first found that an electromotive force is generated by heating a junction between two dissimilar metals. The converse effect discovered by Peltier in 1834 and demonstrated beyond doubt by Lenz in 1838 when he successfully froze water at a bismuth-antimony junction. With the development of semiconductor compounds such as alloys of bismuth telluride or antimony telluride the pumping of substantial quantities of heat from one junction to another simply by passing an electric current is now possible and industrial and commercial applications are in process of development. Seebeck Effect: The effect is that a voltage, the thermoelectric EMF, is created in the presence of a temperature difference between two different metals or semiconductors. This causes a continuous current in the conductors if they form a complete loop. The voltage created is of the order of several micro volts per Kelvin difference. One such combination, copperconstantan, has a Seebeck coefficient of 41 microvolts per degree kelvin at room temperature. In the circuit:

(which can be in several different configurations and be governed by the same equations), the voltage developed can be derived from:

.(1)

SA and SB are the Seebeck coefficients (also called thermoelectric power or thermopower) of the metals A and B as a function of temperature, and T1 and T2 are the temperatures of the two junctions. The Seebeck coefficients are non-linear as a function of temperature, and depend on the conductors' absolute temperature, material, and molecular structure. If the Seebeck coefficients are effectively constant for the measured temperature range, the above formula can be approximated as: (2) The Seebeck effect is commonly used in a device called a thermocouple (because it is made from a coupling or junction of materials, usually metals) to measure a temperature difference directly or to measure an absolute temperature by setting one end to a known temperature. A metal probe held at a constant temperature in contact with a second metal of unknown composition can be classified by its TE effect. Industrial quality control instruments use this Seebeck effect to identify metal alloys. This is known as Thermoelectric alloy sorting. Several thermocouples when connected in series are called a thermopile, which is sometimes constructed in order to increase the output voltage since the voltage induced over each individual couple is small. Mobile charged carriers migrating to the cold side leave behind their oppositely charged and immobile nuclei at the hot side thus giving rise to a thermoelectric voltage (thermoelectric refers to the fact that the voltage is created by a temperature difference). Since a separation of charges also creates an electric field, the buildup of charged carriers onto the cold side eventually ceases at some maximum value since there exists an equal amount of charged carriers drifting back to the hot side as a result of the electric field at equilibrium. Only an increase in the temperature difference can resume a buildup of more charge carriers on the cold side and thus lead to an increase in the thermoelectric voltage. Incidentally the thermopower also measures the entropy per charge carrier in the material. The thermopower of a material, represented as S, depends on the material's temperature, and crystal structure. Typically metals have small thermopowers because most have halffilled bands. Electrons (negative charges) and holes (positive charges) both contribute to the induced thermoelectric voltage thus canceling each other's contribution to that voltage and making it small. In contrast, semiconductors can be doped with an excess amount of electrons or holes and thus can have large positive or negative values of the thermopower depending on the charge of the excess carriers. The sign of the thermopower can determine which charged carriers dominate the electric transport in both metals and semiconductors. Superconductors have zero thermopower since the charged carriers carry no entropy. Equivalently, the thermopower is zero because it is impossible to have a finite voltage across a superconductor. (For example, by Ohm's law, V=IR=0, since the resistance, R, is equal to zero in a superconductor.) 2

If two contacts of conductors are maintained at a different temperatures (Th-Tc= T) , a potential difference can be observed between them (VS). This is called Seebeck voltage and arises from the more rapid diffusion of carriers at the hot junction. These carriers diffuse to the cold junction, so that such a contact acquires a potential having the same sign as the diffusing majority carriers. The seebeck coefficient, S is defined as

Experimental Procedure
List of equipments: Mikron Seebeck effect Experiment setup with 1. Copper Constantan Thermocouple 2. Hot water/oil bath (Calorimeter with Small power film resistor heater) 3. Water (ice) bath (Calorimeter with ICE and Water mixture at 0C) 4. Digital Mili voltmeter 5. TwoThermometers 6. Connecting wires 1. Maintain Calorimeter with ICE and Water mixture at 0C (TC) 2. Increase temperature of Hot water Calorimeter bath slowly.(TH) 3. Note down the voltage (in millivolts) across the thermocouple at every 5C rise in hot water bath temperature. 4. Plot a graph of Seebeck voltage V/s T(=TH - TC) 5. Find the slope of the graph. (Seebeck coefficient at room temperature in terms of V/ C or V/ K)

Vs