Pulverized and Intermixed Elements Sintering Method on (Bi,Sb)2(Te,Se)3 Based N-Type Thermoelectric Devices

摘要

By pulverizing and mixing the elements Bi, Sb, Te and Se in air and then subjecting the mixture to press sintering, manufacture of (Bi,Sb)2(Te, Se)3 based thermoelectric devices having reasonable thermoelectric properties was done successfully for the first time. This Pulverized and Intermixed Elements Sintering (PIES) method can eliminate the use of a powder consisting of fully reacted alloys that must be prepared by melting and casting in a sealed tube. Hence the PIES method can substantially reduce the manufacturing cost of thermoelectric devices such as (Bi,Sb)2(Te,Se)3. The thermoelectric figure of merit of the n-type devices manufactured by the PIES method was about 1.7 x -1000 1/K at 300K, but there is still plenty of room for improvement in the PIES method to obtain higher figure of merit. The key which made devices manufactured by the PIES method possible was the adoption of pulverizing and intermixing with a strong force such as centrifugal force in a planetary ball mill.