Structure and Transport Properties of Bulk Nanothermoelectrics Based on Bi^sub x^Sb^sub 2-x^Te^sub 3^ Fabricated by SPS Method

• Published in: Journal of electronic materials 2013-07, Vol.42 (7), p.2110
• Main Authors: Bulat, L P, Drabkin, I A, Karatayev, V V, Osvenskii, V B, Parkhomenko, Yu N, Lavrentev, M G, Sorokin, A I, Pshenai-severin, D A, Blank, V D, Pivovarov, G I, Bublik, V T, Tabachkova, N Yu
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Electric properties; Heat conductivity; Materials science; Nanostructured materials; Plasma sintering
• ISSN: 0361-5235; 1543-186X
• DOI: 10.1007/s11664-013-2536-9

Issue Title: 2012 International Conference on Thermoelectrics. Guest Editors: Ryoji Funahashi, Donald Morelli, Lasse Rosendahl, and Jihui Yang Ball milling with subsequent spark plasma sintering (SPS) was used to fabricate bulk nanothermoelectrics based on Bi^sub x^Sb^sub 2-x^Te^sub 3^. The SPS technique enables reduced size of grains in comparison with the hot-pressing method. The electrical and thermal conductivities, Seebeck coefficient, and thermoelectric figure of merit as functions of temperature and alloy composition were measured for different sintering temperatures. The greatest value of the figure of merit ZT = 1.25 was reached at the temperature of 90°C to 100°C in Bi^sub 0.4^Sb^sub 1.6^Te^sub 3^ for sintering temperature of 450°C to 500°C. The volume and quantitative distributions of size of coherent dispersion areas (CDA) were calculated for different sintering temperatures. The phonon thermal conductivity of nanostructured Bi^sub x^Sb^sub 2-x^Te^sub 3^ was investigated theoretically taking into account phonon scattering on grain boundaries and nanoprecipitates. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]