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Structure and Thermoelectric Properties of Nanostructured Bi1−xSbx Alloys Synthesized by Mechanical Alloying

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Abstract

We report on the synthesis of Bi1−xSbx alloys and the investigation of the relationship between their structural and thermoelectric properties. In order to produce a compound that will work efficiently even above room temperature, Bi1−xSbx alloys were chosen, as they are known to be the best suited n-type thermoelectric materials in the low-temperature regime (200 K). Using a top–down method, we produced nanostructured Bi1−xSbx powders by ball-milling in the whole composition range of 0 < x < 1.0. Nanostructuring of Bi1−xSbx alloys increases the band gap and thus results in an enlargement of the semiconducting composition region (0 ≤ x ≤ 0.5) compared to its bulk counterpart (0.07 ≤ x ≤ 0.22). The enhancement of the band gap strongly affects the transport properties of the alloys, i.e. the electrical conductivity and the Seebeck coefficient. Moreover, nanostructuring reduces the thermal conductivity through the implementation of grain boundaries as phonon-scattering centers, leading to a significant enhancement of the thermoelectric properties. The highest figure-of-merit observed in this study is 0.25 which was found for Bi0.87Sb0.13 at 280 K.

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Acknowledgements

We gratefully acknowledge financial support by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) in the framework of the SPP 1386. P.T. and S.P. acknowledge the Austrian Science Fund (FWF, Project No I 623-N16).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Inorganic and Analytical Chemistry, Justus-Liebig-University Giessen, Heinrich-Buff-Ring 17, 35392, Giessen, Germany

    Ekrem Güneş, Bernadette Landschreiber, Christoph Wiegand & Sabine Schlecht

  2. Department of Alternative Energy Resources, Harran University, 63300, Urfa, Turkey

    Ekrem Güneş

  3. Institute of Experimental Physics I, Justus-Liebig-University Giessen, Heinrich-Buff-Ring 16, 35392, Giessen, Germany

    Gert Homm, Christian Will, Matthias T. Elm & Peter J. Klar

  4. Institute of Solid State Physics, Vienna University of Technology, Wiedner Hauptstraße 8-10, 1040, Vienna, Austria

    Petr Tomeš & Silke Paschen

  5. Center for Materials Research (LaMa), Justus-Liebig-University Giessen, Heinrich-Buff-Ring 16, 35392, Giessen, Germany

    Matthias T. Elm & Peter J. Klar

  6. Institute of Physical Chemistry, Justus-Liebig-University Giessen, Heinrich-Buff-Ring 17, 35392, Giessen, Germany

    Matthias T. Elm

  7. Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Science, University of Cologne, Greinstrasse 6, 50939, Cologne, Germany

    Mathias S. Wickleder

Authors
  1. Ekrem Güneş
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  2. Bernadette Landschreiber
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  3. Gert Homm
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  4. Christoph Wiegand
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  6. Christian Will
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  7. Matthias T. Elm
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  9. Peter J. Klar
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  10. Sabine Schlecht
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  11. Mathias S. Wickleder
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The manuscript was written through contributions of all authors. All authors have given approval to the final version of the manuscript.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Matthias T. Elm or Mathias S. Wickleder.

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Güneş, E., Landschreiber, B., Homm, G. et al. Structure and Thermoelectric Properties of Nanostructured Bi1−xSbx Alloys Synthesized by Mechanical Alloying. J. Electron. Mater. 47, 6007–6015 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11664-018-6487-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11664-018-6487-z

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