NANOSTRUCTURED COPPER-SELENIDE WITH HIGH THERMOELECTRIC FIGURE-OF-MERIT AND PROCESS FOR THE PREPARATION THEREOF

摘要

Disclosed is a nanostructured p-type copper-selenide as a cost-effective thermoelectric material with a high thermoelectric figure-of-merit. The nanostructured copper-selenide is a cost-effective p-type thermoelectric material having a high figure-of-merit of 2 at 973 K and is synthesized employing high energy ball milling process followed by reaction sintering under pressure at high heating rates using spark plasma sintering of the resulting nanopowders. The sintered copper-selenide shows a density of 99.9% of theoretical density and retains the nanoscale features introduced during ball milling leading to a thermoelectric figure of merit of 2 at 973 K.