Fabrication and enhanced thermoelectric properties of alumina nanoparticle-dispersed Bi 0.5 Sb 1.5 Te 3 matrix composites

Alumina nanoparticle-dispersed bismuth-antimony-tellurium matrix (Al2O3/BST) composite powders were fabricated by using ball milling process of alumina nanoparticle about 10nm and p-type bismuth telluride nanopowders prepared from the mechanochemical process (MCP). The fabricated Al2O3/BST composite powders were a few hundreds of nanometer in size, with a clear Bi0.5Sb1.5Te3 phase. The composite powders were consolidated into p-type bulk composite by spark plasma sintering process. High-resolution TEM images reveal that alumina nanoparticles were dispersed among the grain boundary or in the matrix grain. The sintered 0.3 vol.% Al2O3/BST composite exhibited significantly improved power factor and reduced thermal conductivity in the temperature ranging from 293 to 473 K compared to those of pure BST. From these results, the highly increased ZT value of 1.5 was obtained from 0.3 vol.% Al2O3/BST composite at 323K.

[1]  E. Shin,et al.  The influence of CNTs on the thermoelectric properties of a CNT/Bi2Te3 composite , 2013 .

[2]  Qingjie Zhang,et al.  Unique nanostructures and enhanced thermoelectric performance of melt-spun BiSbTe alloys , 2009 .

[3]  A. Mukherjee,et al.  Thermoelectric properties of carbon nanotube/ceramic nanocomposites , 2006 .

[4]  K. Kim,et al.  Thermoelectric properties of P-type bismuth telluride powders synthesized by a mechano-chemical process , 2010 .

[5]  Junyou Yang,et al.  Phase transformation and thermoelectric properties of p-type (Bi2Te3)0.25(Sb2Te3)0.75 prepared by mechanical alloying and hot pressing , 2006 .

[6]  K. Kim,et al.  Synthesis of alumina nanoparticle-embedded-bismuth telluride matrix thermoelectric composite powders , 2012 .

[7]  Min Zhou,et al.  Thermoelectric and mechanical properties of nano-SiC-dispersed Bi2Te3 fabricated by mechanical alloying and spark plasma sintering , 2008 .

[8]  M. Dresselhaus,et al.  High-Thermoelectric Performance of Nanostructured Bismuth Antimony Telluride Bulk Alloys , 2008, Science.

[9]  Xing Zhang,et al.  Bismuth telluride nanotubes and the effects on the thermoelectric properties of nanotube-containing nanocomposites , 2005 .

[10]  Richard W Siegel,et al.  A new class of doped nanobulk high-figure-of-merit thermoelectrics by scalable bottom-up assembly. , 2012, Nature materials.

[11]  X. Wang,et al.  Electrical and thermoelectric properties of single- wall carbon nanotube doped Bi2Te3 , 2012 .

[12]  K. Kim,et al.  IMPROVEMENT IN THERMOELECTRIC PROPERTIES OF N-TYPE BISMUTH TELLURIDE NANOPOWDERS BY HYDROGEN REDUCTION TREATMENT , 2011 .

[13]  Tiejun Zhu,et al.  Syntheses and thermoelectric properties of Bi2Te3/Sb2Te3 bulk nanocomposites with laminated nanostructure , 2008 .

[14]  T. Lim,et al.  IMPROVEMENT IN THERMOELECTRIC PROPERTIES OF N-TYPE BISMUTH TELLURIDE NANOPOWDERS BY HYDROGEN REDUCTION TREATMENT , 2011 .

[15]  W. Marsden.  I and J , 2012 .

[16]  H. Hng,et al.  Influence of Nanoinclusions on Thermoelectric Properties of n-Type Bi2Te3 Nanocomposites , 2011 .