  Thermoelectricity refers to the conversion of thermal energy into electrical
energy and vice-versa, which relies on three main effects: Seebeck, Peltier and
Thomson, all of which are manifestations of heat and electricity flow. In this
work we investigate the deposition of nanometric films and the effect of a
thermal treatment on their thermoelectric properties. The films are based on
BiSbT e ternary alloys, obtained by deposition on a substrate using the DC
sputtering technique. We produced sputtering targets with repurposed materials
from commercial thermoelectric modules. In this way, we explore an
environmentally responsible destination for discarded devices, with in situ
preparation and manufacture of film-based thermoelectric modules. Film samples
show an improvement trend in thermoelectric efficiency as the annealing
temperature is increased in the range 423-623 K. The experimental data
regarding thermal conductivity, electrical resistivity (or electrical
conductivity), and the Seebeck coefficient were analyzed with the theory of
q-deformed algebra. Applying a q-deformation to our system we can model the
effect of the annealing temperature on the thermal and electrical
conductivities, as well as the Seebeck coefficient, and argue that the q-factor
must be related to structural properties of the films. We believe that our work
could pave the way for future developments in the modeling of experimental
measurements via the formalism of q-deformation algebra.
