Thermoelectric Properties of Alumina-Doped Bi 0.4 Sb 1.6 Te 3 Nanocomposites Prepared through Mechanical Alloying and Vacuum Hot Pressing

Chung-Kwei Lin, May-Show Chen, Rong-Tan Huang, Yu-Chun Cheng and Pee-Yew Lee
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Chung-Kwei Lin: School of Dental Technology, College of Oral Medicine, Taipei Medical University, Taipei 110, Taiwan
May-Show Chen: School of Oral Hygiene, College of Oral Medicine, Taipei Medical University, Taipei 110, Taiwan
Rong-Tan Huang: Institute of Materials Engineering, National Taiwan Ocean University, Keelung 202, Taiwan
Yu-Chun Cheng: Institute of Materials Engineering, National Taiwan Ocean University, Keelung 202, Taiwan
Pee-Yew Lee: Institute of Materials Engineering, National Taiwan Ocean University, Keelung 202, Taiwan

Energies, 2015, vol. 8, issue 11, 1-11

Abstract: In this study, ?-Al 2 O 3 particles were dispersed in p -type Bi 0.4 Sb 1.6 Te 3 through mechanical alloying to form ?-Al 2 O 3 /Bi 0.4 Sb 1.6 Te 3 composite powders. The composite powders were consolidated using vacuum hot pressing to produce nano- and microstructured composites. Thermoelectric (TE) measurements indicated that adding an optimal amount of ?-Al 2 O 3 nanoparticles improves the TE performance of the fabricated composites. High TE performances with figure of merit (ZT) values as high as 1.22 and 1.21 were achieved at 373 and 398 K for samples containing 1 and 3 wt % ?-Al 2 O 3 nanoparticles, respectively. These ZT values are higher than those of monolithic Bi 0.4 Sb 1.6 Te 3 samples. The ZT values of the fabricated samples at 298–423 K are 1.0–1.22; these ZT characteristics make ?-Al 2 O 3 /Bi 0.4 Sb 1.6 Te 3 composites suitable for power generation applications because no other material with a similarly high ZT value has been reported at this temperature range. The achieved high ZT value may be attributable to the unique nano- and microstructures in which ?-Al 2 O 3 nanoparticles are dispersed among the grain boundary or in the matrix grain, as revealed by high-resolution transmission electron microscopy. The dispersed ?-Al 2 O 3 nanoparticles thus increase phonon scattering sites and reduce thermal conductivity. The results indicated that the nano- and microstructured ?-Al 2 O 3 /Bi 0.4 Sb 1.6 Te 3 alloy can serve as a high-performance material for application in TE devices.

Keywords: ?-Al 2 O 3 /Bi 0.4 Sb 1.6 Te 3; thermoelectric material; mechanical alloying; nano/microstructure; vacuum hot pressing (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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