Spark Plasma Sintering Effect on Thermoelectric Properties of Nanostructured Bismuth Telluride Synthesized by High Energy Ball Milling

2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (6) ◽  
pp. 3902-3908
Author(s):  
Sandeep K. Pundir ◽  
Sukhvir Singh ◽  
Parveen Jain

Thermoelectric properties of high energy ball milled nano structured bismuth telluride (Bi2Te3) have been reported. By high energy ball milling, alloyed bulk crystalline ingots crush into nanopowder and followed by spark plasma sintering (SPS), we have demonstrate high figure of merit (ZT) in bismuth telluride pellet samples. In this work systematic study carried out on three pellet samples of Bi2Te3, synthesized by high ball milling for the time period of 4 hours, 8 hours and 12 hours and followed by SPS at the same processing parameters. A peak value of dimensionless figure of merit of about 1.22 at the temperature of 473 K has been achieved for 8 hours ball milled pellet sample. This enhancement in ZT value is mostly due to decrease in thermal conductivity. Results of this study demonstrate that ball milling and SPS has a major effect in controlling the density of grain boundaries of Bi2Te3 nano particles, while the pressure exerted on the powder samples during SPS introduce stress at the boundaries of the crystallites. These disordered crystallite boundary regions exert scattering of thermal energy carriers which reduced the thermal conductivity of the materials.

2013 ◽  
Vol 1490 ◽  
pp. 51-56 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sivaiah Bathula ◽  
M. Jayasimhadri ◽  
Ajay Dhar ◽  
M. Saravanan ◽  
D. K. Misra ◽  
...  

ABSTRACTIn the present study, we report the enhancement in figure-of-merit (ZT) of nanostructured n-type Silicon-Germanium (Si80Ge20) thermoelectric alloy synthesized using high energy ball milling followed by spark plasma sintering (SPS). After 90 h of ball milling of elemental powders of Si, Ge and P (2 at.%), a complete dissolution of Ge in Si matrix has been observed forming the nanostructured n-type Si80Ge20 alloy powder. X-ray diffraction analysis (XRD) confirmed the crystallite size of the host matrix (Si) to be ∼7 nm and also indicated the formation of an additional phase of SiP nano-precipitates after SPS. HR-TEM analysis revealed that the nano-grained network was retained post-sintering with a crystallite size of size of 9 nm and also confirmed the SiP precipitates formation with a size of 4 to 6 nm. As a result, a very low thermal conductivity of ∼2.3W/mK at 900°C has been observed for Si80Ge20 alloy primarily due to scattering of phonons by nanostructured grains and nano-scaled SiP precipitates which further contribute to this scattering mechanism. Electrical conductivity values of SiGe sintered alloy are slightly lower to that of reported values in literature. This was attributed to the formation of SiP which creates a compositional difference between the grain boundary region and the grain region, leading to a chemical potential difference at interface and the grain region. Figure-of-merit (ZT) of n-type Si80Ge20 nanostructured alloy was found to be ≈1.5 at 900°C, which is the highest reported so far at this temperature.


2013 ◽  
Vol 1513 ◽  
Author(s):  
R.C. Picu ◽  
J.J. Gracio ◽  
G.T. Vincze ◽  
N. Mathew ◽  
T. Schubert ◽  
...  

ABSTRACTIn this work Al-SiC nanocomposites were prepared by high energy ball milling followed by spark plasma sintering of the powder. For this purpose Al micro-powder was mixed with 50 nm diameter SiC nanoparticles. The final composites had grains of approximately 100 nm dimensions, with SiC particles located mostly at grain boundaries. To characterize their mechanical behavior, uniaxial compression, micro- and nano-indentation were performed. Materials with 1vol% SiC as well as nanocrystalline Al produced by the same means with the composite were processed, tested and compared. AA1050 was also considered for reference. It was concluded that the yield stress of the nanocomposite with 1 vol% SiC is 10 times larger than that of regular pure Al (AA1050). Nanocrystalline Al without SiC and processed by the same method has a yield stress 7 times larger than AA1050. Therefore, the largest increase is due to the formation of nanograins, with the SiC particles’ role being primarily that of stabilizing the grains. This was demonstrated by performing annealing experiments at 150°C and 250°C for 2h, in separate experiments.


Author(s):  
Enrique Martínez-Franco ◽  
Ming Li ◽  
Ricardo Cuenca Álvarez ◽  
Jesús González Hernández ◽  
Chao Ma ◽  
...  

Metal matrix nanocomposites (MMNCs) are anticipated to offer significantly better performance than existing superalloys. Nickel/alumina nanocomposite samples were fabricated with a powder metallurgy method, combining high-energy ball milling (HEBM) and spark plasma sintering (SPS). The objective of this research is to determine the effect of alumina nanoparticle fraction and HEBM parameters on the powder preparation and sintering processes, and resultant microstructure and properties. Nickel-based powders containing various fractions (1, 5 and 15 vol.%) alumina nanoparticles were prepared by HEBM. The initial particle sizes were 44 μm and 50 nm for nickel and alumina, respectively. The milling process was conducted by starting with mixing at 250 rpm for 5 min, followed by cycling operation at high and low speeds (1200 rpm for 4 min and 150 rpm for 1 min). Samples at different milling times (30, 60, 90 and 120 min) of each composition were obtained. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) was used to evaluate the dispersion of nanoparticles in the powders at different milling times. SPS technique was used for consolidation of the prepared powders. SEM images showed that alumina nanoparticles are homogeneously dispersed in the metal matrix in the sample containing 15 vol.% alumina. Hardness measurements in cross sections of SPSed samples showed higher values for Ni/Al2O3 MMNC compared to pure Ni.


Metals ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (9) ◽  
pp. 1268 ◽  
Author(s):  
Natalia Shkodich ◽  
Alexey Sedegov ◽  
Kirill Kuskov ◽  
Sergey Busurin ◽  
Yury Scheck ◽  
...  

For the first time, a powder of refractory body-centered cubic (bcc) HfTaTiNbZr-based high-entropy alloy (RHEA) was prepared by short-term (90 min) high-energy ball milling (HEBM) followed by spark plasma sintering (SPS) at 1300 °C for 10 min and the resultant bulk material was characterized by XRD and SEM/EDX. The material showed ultra-high Vickers hardness (10.7 GPa) and a density of 9.87 ± 0.18 g/cm³ (98.7%). Our alloy was found to consist of HfZrTiTaNb-based solid solution with bcc structure as a main phase, a hexagonal closest packed (hcp) Hf/Zr-based solid solution, and Me2Fe phases (Me = Hf, Zr) as minor admixtures. Principal elements of the HEA phase were uniformly distributed over the bulk of HfTaTiNbZr-based alloy. Similar alloys synthesized without milling or in the case of low-energy ball milling (LEBM, 10 h) consisted of a bcc HEA and a Hf/Zr-rich hcp solid solution; in this case, the Vickers hardness of such alloys was found to have a value of 6.4 GPa and 5.8 GPa, respectively.


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