Growth and Some Properties of Cr(sub 11)Ge(sub 19)

Cr(sub 11)Ge(sub 19) belongs to a large family of materials known as the Nowtny chimney-ladder compounds, some of which were recently proposed as advanced thermoelectric materials because of their low thermal conductivity related to their relatively complex crystal structure. In order to assess the potential of the compound Cr(sub 11)Ge(sub 19) for thermoelectric applications, we grew large single crystals of this peritectic compound by a vertical gradient freeze technique and measured the thermoelectric properties of the crystals.