Processing and Characterization af Nano-Ceramic-Dispersed Thermoelectric Materials

Kurzfassung

The addition of ceramic to thermoelectric matrix is expected to reduce materials thermal conductivity, which is attributed to a phonon scattering mechanism by ceramic particles. The effect of ceramic on the overall thermoelectric performance is worth investigating. In the present work, nano ZrO2 powders were introduced into well-known thermoelectric materials (FeSi2, CoSb3, and Zn4Sb3) via ball milling. The as-milled powders were consolidated by hot pressing. For comparison, the stated thermoelectric materials without nano ZrO2 dispersion were also prepared on same processing conditions. For the achieved compacts, the temperature-dependent transport properties were characterized. The correlation of ceramic dispersion and processing conditions with thermoelectric parameters (Seebeck coefficient, electrical conductivity, thermal conductivity, and dimensionless figure of merit) is presented. The results show how the performance of the investigated thermoelectric materials is affected by the dispersion of nano ceramic phase.