p-Type PbTe Thermoelectric Bulk Materials with Nanograins Fabricated by Attrition Milling and Spark Plasma Sintering

• Published in: Journal of electronic materials Vol. 38; no. 9; pp. 1956 - 1961
• Main Authors: Kuo, Chia-Hung, Jeng, Ming-Shan, Ku, Jie-Ren, Wu, Shih-Kuo, Chou, Ya-Wen, Hwang, Chii-Shyang
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Boston Springer US 01.09.2009; Springer; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Characterization and Evaluation of Materials; Chemistry and Materials Science; Composite materials; Cross-disciplinary physics: materials science; rheology; Electronics and Microelectronics; Exact sciences and technology; Heat conductivity; Instrumentation; Materials Science; Nanoscale materials and structures: fabrication and characterization; Optical and Electronic Materials; Other topics in nanoscale materials and structures; Physics; Plasma sintering; Solid State Physics; Seebeck coefficient; nanograins; thermal conductivity; spark plasma sintering; PbTe; attrition milling; Grain size; Seebeck effect; Thermoelectric properties; Materials preparation; Dense plasma; Attrition mill; Thermoelectric materials; Lead tellurides; Spark plasma sintering; Manufacturing processes; Thermoelectric power; Size effect; Powder compaction; Thermal conductivity; Nanopowder; Nanostructured materials; Ingot
• ISSN: 0361-5235; 1543-186X
• DOI: 10.1007/s11664-009-0677-7

This work reports a manufacturing process that combines attrition milling and spark plasma sintering (SPS) in the preparation of PbTe bulk materials with nanosize grains. The process involves milling raw PbTe ingots into nanocrystalline powders and subsequent compacting of these powders into dense bulk materials by spark plasma sintering. Sintered samples with relative densities of over 95% and grain sizes as small as 80 nm to 1  μ m were obtained through this process. The thermoelectric properties of the samples were measured and compared with those of raw ingots at temperatures from 300 K to 400 K to demonstrate the influence of grain size on thermoelectric properties. The results reveal that reducing the grain size improved thermoelectric performance.