Skutterudite materials show PGEC (phonon glass electron crystal) characteristics which is an optimal strategy for designing high performance thermoelectric materials. Now two methods are in parallel to control thermal conductivity of skutterudites, a rattler-atoms doping method and a process for nanostructured bulk materials. Amount of rattler atoms in p-type skutterudite are depends on a Fe/Co ratio of matrix, and the optimal Fe/Co ratio has been reported about from 3:1 to 3.5:0.5 in R(Fe,Co)₄Sb12 structure. In this paper, our discussion for rattler doping research was concentrated on double-rattler systems and DD-doped systems in p-type skutterudites. A melt spinning precess combined with high energy ball milling were suggested as a strategy for nanostructured bulk materials with PGEC (phonon glass electron crystal) characteristics in p-type skutterudites.
