Open AccessMechanical alloying synthesis of (Bi1-xAgx)2(Te1-ySey)3 powder and thermoelectric properties of its bulk materials prepared by spark plasma sintering
Author(s) -
Xin Zhang,
Jia Li,
Lu Qing-Mei,
Jiuxing Zhang,
Yanqin Li
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
wuli xuebao
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.199
H-Index - 47
ISSN - 1000-3290
DOI - 10.7498/aps.57.4466
Subject(s) - spark plasma sintering , materials science , thermoelectric effect , thermal conductivity , thermoelectric materials , sintering , metallurgy , analytical chemistry (journal) , composite material , thermodynamics , chromatography , physics , chemistry
The powders of n-type (Bi1-xAgx)2(Te1-ySey)3 thermoelectric materials were synthesized by mechanical alloying and consolidated by spark plasma sintering. The milled powders were investigated by XRD and SEM, which shows that the pure Bi, Te, Ag and Se particles were alloyed after milling for 2h. With the increase of the time of mechanical alloying, the size of the powder grains decreases to about 1—0.5 μm. The effects of the doped elements on the thermoelectric properties have been studied. It was found that Ag can improve the power factor and decrease the lattice thermal conductivity, the compound (Bi0.99Ag0.01)2(Te0.96Se0.04)3 after milling for 10h possesses the highest value of the power factor and minimum thermal conductivity, which results in the highest value of ZT of 0.52 at 323K.