Zinc antimonide ( Zn Sb), ( Zn₃ Sb₂), ( Zn₄ Sb₃) is an

inorganic In chemistry, an inorganic compound is typically a chemical compound that lacks carbon–hydrogen bonds, that is, a compound that is not an organic compound. The study of inorganic compounds is a subfield of chemistry known as ''inorganic chemist ...

chemical compound A chemical compound is a chemical substance composed of many identical molecules (or molecular entities) containing atoms from more than one chemical element held together by chemical bonds. A molecule consisting of atoms of only one element ...

. The Zn-Sb system contains six

intermetallic An intermetallic (also called an intermetallic compound, intermetallic alloy, ordered intermetallic alloy, and a long-range-ordered alloy) is a type of metallic alloy that forms an ordered solid-state compound between two or more metallic eleme ...

s. Like

indium antimonide Indium antimonide (InSb) is a crystalline compound made from the elements indium (In) and antimony (Sb). It is a narrow- gap semiconductor material from the III- V group used in infrared detectors, including thermal imaging cameras, FLIR systems ...

aluminium antimonide Aluminium antimonide (AlSb) is a semiconductor of the group III-V family containing aluminium and antimony. The lattice constant is 0.61 nm. The indirect bandgap is approximately 1.6 eV at 300 K, whereas the direct band gap is 2.22 eV. Its ...

, and

gallium antimonide Gallium antimonide (GaSb) is a semiconducting compound of gallium and antimony of the III-V family. It has a lattice constant of about 0.61 nm. It has a band gap of 0.67 eV. History The intermetallic compound GaSb was first prepared in 1926 by V ...

, it is a

semiconducting A semiconductor is a material which has an electrical resistivity and conductivity, electrical conductivity value falling between that of a electrical conductor, conductor, such as copper, and an insulator (electricity), insulator, such as glas ...

compound. It is used in

transistors upright=1.4, gate (G), body (B), source (S) and drain (D) terminals. The gate is separated from the body by an insulating layer (pink). A transistor is a semiconductor device used to Electronic amplifier, amplify or electronic switch, switch ...

infrared Infrared (IR), sometimes called infrared light, is electromagnetic radiation (EMR) with wavelengths longer than those of visible light. It is therefore invisible to the human eye. IR is generally understood to encompass wavelengths from around ...

detectors and thermal imagers, as well as magnetoresistive devices.

History of Zinc Antimony Alloys and Zinc Antimonide

The first reported use of zinc-antimony alloys was in the original work of T. J. Seebeck on thermoelectricity, a scientist who would then give his name to the

Seebeck effect The thermoelectric effect is the direct conversion of temperature differences to electric voltage and vice versa via a thermocouple. A thermoelectric device creates a voltage when there is a different temperature on each side. Conversely, when ...

. By the 1860s,

Moses G. Farmer Moses Gerrish Farmer (February 9, 1820 – May 25, 1893) was an electrical engineer and inventor. Farmer was a member to the AIEE, later known as the IEEE. Biography Farmer was born at Boscawen, New Hampshire. He received his schooling at Philli ...

, an American inventor, had developed the first high powered thermoelectric generator based on using a zinc-antimony alloy with a composition very close to stoichiometric ZnSb. He showed this generator at the 1867 Paris Exposition where it was carefully studied and copied (with minor modifications) by a number of people including Clamond. Farmer finally received the patent on his generator in 1870. George H. Cove patented a thermoelectric generator based on a Zn-Sb alloy in the early 1900s. His patent claimed that the voltage and current for six "joints" was 3V at 3A. This was a far higher output than would be expected from a thermoelectric couple, and was possibly the first demonstration of the thermophotovoltaic effect, as the bandgap for ZnSb is 0.56eV, which under ideal conditions could yield close to 0.5V per diode. The next researcher to work with the material was

Mária Telkes Mária Telkes (December 12, 1900 – December 2, 1995) was a Hungarian-American biophysicist and inventor who worked on solar energy technologies. She moved to the United States in 1925 to work as a biophysicist. She became an American citizen i ...

while she was at Westinghouse in Pittsburgh during the 1930s. Interest was revived again with the discovery of the higher bandgap Zn₄Sb₃ material in the 1990s.

References

zinc Zinc is a chemical element with the symbol Zn and atomic number 30. Zinc is a slightly brittle metal at room temperature and has a shiny-greyish appearance when oxidation is removed. It is the first element in group 12 (IIB) of the periodi ...

antimonide Antimonides (sometimes called stibnides) are compounds of antimony with more electropositive elements. The antimonide ion is Sb3−. Reduction of antimony by alkali metals or by other methods leads to alkali metal antimonides of various types. K ...

II-V semiconductors II-V compounds {{inorganic-compound-stub