Skip to main content
Log in

Thermoelectric and mechanical properties of the Bi0.5Sb1.5Te3 solid solution prepared by melt spinning

  • Published:
Inorganic Materials Aims and scope

Abstract

This paper reports the preparation and characterization of pressed microcrystalline materials based on a p-type Bi0.5Sb1.5Te3 solid solution produced from a melt-spun powder. We have examined the effect of melt spinning conditions (temperature, disk rotation rate, and purity of the inert gas in the heat treatment chamber) on the particle size and morphology of the powders and the microstructure and thermoelectric properties of hot-pressed samples and investigated the mechanical properties (compression and bend tests) of materials prepared by various methods. The thermoelectric properties of the materials (thermopower, electrical conductivity, and thermal conductivity) were studied at room temperature and in the range 100–700 K. The highest thermoelectric figure of merit ZT of the materials prepared by pressing the melt-spun powder was 1.3, whereas the ZT of the materials prepared by the other methods did not exceed 1.1. The higher ZT of the materials studied was due to their lower lattice thermal conductivity and slightly higher thermopower.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Lin-Chung, P.J. and Reinecke, T.I., Thermoelectric Figure of Merit of Composite Superlattice Systems, Phys. Rev. B: Condens. Matter Mater. Phys., 1995, vol. 51, no. 19, pp. 13 244–13 247.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Hicks, L.D., Harman, T.C., and Dresselhaus, M.S., Use of Quantum-Well Superlattices to Obtain a High Figure of Merit from Nonconventional Thermoelectric Materials, Appl. Phys. Lett., 1993, vol. 63, no. 23, pp. 3230–3232.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Hicks, L.D. and Dresselhaus, M.S., Effect of Quantum-Well Structure on Thermoelectric Figure of Merit, Phys. Rev. B: Condens. Matter Mater. Phys., 1993, vol. 47, no. 19, pp. 12 727–12 731.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Yang, R.G. and Chen, G., Thermal Conductivity Modeling of Periodic Two-Dimensional Nanocomposites, Phys. Rev. B: Condens. Matter Mater. Phys., 2004, vol. 69, paper 195 316.

  5. Ma Yi, Hao, Q., Poudel, B., et al., Enhanced Thermoelectric Figure-of-Merit in p-Type Nanostructured Bismuth Antimony Tellurium Alloys Made from Elemental Chunks, Nano Lett., 2008, vol. 8, paper 2580.

  6. Poudel, B., Hao, Q., Ma Yi, Lan, Y.C., et al., High-Thermoelectric Performance of Nanostructured Bismuth Antimony Telluride Bulk Alloys, Science, 2008, vol. 320, no. 5876, pp. 634–638.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Dresselhaus, M.S., Chen, G., Tang, M.Y., et al., New Directions for Low-Dimensional Thermoelectric Materials, Adv. Mater., 2007, vol. 19, pp. 1043–1053.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. Gusev, A.I., Nanomaterialy, nanostruktury, nanotekhnologii (Nanomaterials, Nanostructures, and Nanotechnologies), Moscow: Nauka-Fizmatmet, 2007, 2nd ed.

    Google Scholar 

  9. Gogishvili, O.Sh., Kononov, G.G., Krivoruchko, S.P., et al., Structure of a Liquid-Quenched (Bi,Sb)2Te3 Alloy, VII Vsesoyuznaay konferentsiya “Khimiya i tekhnicheskoe primenenie khal’kogenidov” (VII All-Union Conf. Chemistry and Technological Applications of Chalcogenides), Uzhgorod, 1988, p. 367.

  10. Gogishvili, O.Sh., Lalykin, S.P., Krivoruchko, S.P., et al., Preparation of Alloys Based on Bismuth and Antimony Chalcogenides through Ultrarapid Melt Cooling, VII Vsesoyuznaay konferentsiya “Khimiya i tekhnicheskoe primenenie khal’kogenidov” (VII All-Union Conf. Chemistry and Technological Applications of Chalcogenides), Uzhgorod, 1988, p. 368.

  11. Gogishvili, O.Sh., Krivoruchko, S.P., Ovsyanko, I.I., et al., Properties of Hot-Pressed Samples of the Bi0.52Sb1.48Te3 Alloy Prepared through Ultrarapid Melt Cooling, VII Vsesoyuznaay konferentsiya “Khimiya i tekhnicheskoe primenenie khal’kogenidov” (VII All-Union Conf. Chemistry and Technological Applications of Chalcogenides), Uzhgorod, 1988, p. 372.

  12. Xie, W., Tang, X., Yan, Y., Zhang, Q., and Tritt, T., Unique Nanostructures and Enhanced Thermoelectric Performance of Melt-Spun BiSbTe Alloys, J. Appl. Phys., 2009, vol. 94, paper 102 111.

  13. Xie, W., He, J., Kang, H., Tang, X., et al., Identifying the Specific Nanostructures Responsible for the High Thermoelectric Performance of (Bi,Sb)2Te3 Nanocomposites, Nano Lett., 2010, vol. 10, pp. 3283–3289.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to L. D. Ivanova.

Additional information

Original Russian Text © L.D. Ivanova, L.I. Petrova, Yu.V. Granatkina, V.G. Leontyev, A.S. Ivanov, S.A. Varlamov, Yu.P. Prilepo, A.M. Sychev, A.G. Chuiko, I.V. Bashkov, 2013, published in Neorganicheskie Materialy, 2013, Vol. 49, No. 2, pp. 110–117.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Ivanova, L.D., Petrova, L.I., Granatkina, Y.V. et al. Thermoelectric and mechanical properties of the Bi0.5Sb1.5Te3 solid solution prepared by melt spinning. Inorg Mater 49, 120–126 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1134/S0020168513020106

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1134/S0020168513020106

Keywords

Navigation