Synthesis of Filled-Skutterudite Thermoelectric Materials by Mechanical Alloying and Sintering

摘要

La<,0.2>FeCo<,3>Sb<,12> filled-skutterudite compounds were prepared by mechanical alloying and subsequent hot press sintering and vacuum sintering respectively. There is a small amount Sb impurity along with the filled skutterudite compound when the powders MAed for 10h were vacuum sintered at 700℃ for 10h. While single-phase filled-skutterudite compounds could be obtained by hot pressing the as- MAed powders at 650℃ for 2h. The vacuum sintered sample presented a porous microstructure, and the sample density could be increased by hot press, furthermore, the hot pressed sample shows fine microstructure. The ZT of the filled skutterudite samples was 0.045 at 400K for two heat treatment procedures.