Spark plasma sintered bismuth telluride-based thermoelectric materials incorporating dispersed boron carbide

H. R. Williams; R. M. Ambrosi; K. Chen; U. Friedman; H. Ning; M. J. Reece; M. C. Robbins; K. Simpson; K. Stephenson

doi:10.1016/j.jallcom.2014.12.010

Spark plasma sintered bismuth telluride-based thermoelectric materials incorporating dispersed boron carbide

H. R. Williams^*, R. M. Ambrosi, K. Chen, U. Friedman, H. Ning, M. J. Reece, M. C. Robbins, K. Simpson, K. Stephenson

^*Corresponding author for this work

Metallurgy and Materials

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

34 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

The mechanical properties of bismuth telluride based thermoelectric materials have received much less attention in the literature than their thermoelectric properties. Polycrystalline p-type Bi_0.5Sb_1.5Te₃ materials were produced from powder using spark plasma sintering (SPS). The effects of nano-B₄C addition on the thermoelectric performance, Vickers hardness and fracture toughness were measured. Addition of 0.2 vol% B₄C was found to have little effect on zT but increased hardness by approximately 27% when compared to polycrystalline material without B₄C. The K_IC fracture toughness of these compositions was measured as 0.80 MPa m^1/2 by Single-Edge V-Notched Beam (SEVNB). The machinability of polycrystalline materials produced by SPS was significantly better than commercially available directionally solidified materials because the latter is limited by cleavage along the crystallographic plane parallel to the direction of solidification.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	368-374
Number of pages	7
Journal	Journal of Alloys and Compounds
Volume	626
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jallcom.2014.12.010
Publication status	Published - 25 Mar 2015

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
This work was performed under contract to the European Space Agency under the Thermoelectric Converter for Small-Scale RTG programme , 23026/10/NL/AT . The authors wish to express their thanks to the reviewers for their suggested improvements to the manuscript.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Keywords

Mechanical properties
Sintering
Thermoelectric materials

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Mechanics of Materials
Mechanical Engineering
Metals and Alloys
Materials Chemistry

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10.1016/j.jallcom.2014.12.010

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title = "Spark plasma sintered bismuth telluride-based thermoelectric materials incorporating dispersed boron carbide",

abstract = "The mechanical properties of bismuth telluride based thermoelectric materials have received much less attention in the literature than their thermoelectric properties. Polycrystalline p-type Bi0.5Sb1.5Te3 materials were produced from powder using spark plasma sintering (SPS). The effects of nano-B4C addition on the thermoelectric performance, Vickers hardness and fracture toughness were measured. Addition of 0.2 vol% B4C was found to have little effect on zT but increased hardness by approximately 27% when compared to polycrystalline material without B4C. The KIC fracture toughness of these compositions was measured as 0.80 MPa m1/2 by Single-Edge V-Notched Beam (SEVNB). The machinability of polycrystalline materials produced by SPS was significantly better than commercially available directionally solidified materials because the latter is limited by cleavage along the crystallographic plane parallel to the direction of solidification.",

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note = "Funding Information: This work was performed under contract to the European Space Agency under the Thermoelectric Converter for Small-Scale RTG programme , 23026/10/NL/AT . The authors wish to express their thanks to the reviewers for their suggested improvements to the manuscript. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.",

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AU - Ambrosi, R. M.

AU - Chen, K.

AU - Friedman, U.

AU - Ning, H.

AU - Reece, M. J.

AU - Robbins, M. C.

AU - Simpson, K.

AU - Stephenson, K.

N1 - Funding Information: This work was performed under contract to the European Space Agency under the Thermoelectric Converter for Small-Scale RTG programme , 23026/10/NL/AT . The authors wish to express their thanks to the reviewers for their suggested improvements to the manuscript. Publisher Copyright: © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

PY - 2015/3/25

Y1 - 2015/3/25

N2 - The mechanical properties of bismuth telluride based thermoelectric materials have received much less attention in the literature than their thermoelectric properties. Polycrystalline p-type Bi0.5Sb1.5Te3 materials were produced from powder using spark plasma sintering (SPS). The effects of nano-B4C addition on the thermoelectric performance, Vickers hardness and fracture toughness were measured. Addition of 0.2 vol% B4C was found to have little effect on zT but increased hardness by approximately 27% when compared to polycrystalline material without B4C. The KIC fracture toughness of these compositions was measured as 0.80 MPa m1/2 by Single-Edge V-Notched Beam (SEVNB). The machinability of polycrystalline materials produced by SPS was significantly better than commercially available directionally solidified materials because the latter is limited by cleavage along the crystallographic plane parallel to the direction of solidification.

AB - The mechanical properties of bismuth telluride based thermoelectric materials have received much less attention in the literature than their thermoelectric properties. Polycrystalline p-type Bi0.5Sb1.5Te3 materials were produced from powder using spark plasma sintering (SPS). The effects of nano-B4C addition on the thermoelectric performance, Vickers hardness and fracture toughness were measured. Addition of 0.2 vol% B4C was found to have little effect on zT but increased hardness by approximately 27% when compared to polycrystalline material without B4C. The KIC fracture toughness of these compositions was measured as 0.80 MPa m1/2 by Single-Edge V-Notched Beam (SEVNB). The machinability of polycrystalline materials produced by SPS was significantly better than commercially available directionally solidified materials because the latter is limited by cleavage along the crystallographic plane parallel to the direction of solidification.

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ER -

Spark plasma sintered bismuth telluride-based thermoelectric materials incorporating dispersed boron carbide

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Keywords

ASJC Scopus subject areas

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