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In this study, p-type Bi0.5Sb1.5Te3 based nanocomposites with addition of different weight percentages of Ga2O3 nanoparticles are fabricated by mechanical milling and spark plasma sintering. The fracture surfaces of all Bi0.5Sb1.5Te3 nanocomposites exhibited similar grain distribution on the entire fracture surface. The Vickers hardness is improved for the Bi0.5Sb1.5Te3 nanocomposites with 6 wt% added Ga2O3 due to exhibiting fine microstructure, and dispersion strengthening mechanism. The Seebeck coefficient of Bi0.5Sb1.5Te3 nanocomposites are significantly improved owing to the decrease in carrier concentration. The electrical conductivity is decreased rapidly upon the addition of Ga2O3 nanoparticle due to increasing carrier scattering at newly formed interfaces. The peak power factor of 3.24 W/mK2 is achieved for the base Bi0.5Sb1.5Te3 sintered bulk. The Bi0.5Sb1.5Te3 nanocomposites show low power factor than base sample due to low electrical conductivity.

In this work, p-type Bi0.5Sb1.5Te3 alloys were fabricated by high-energy ball milling (MA) and spark plasma sintering. Different revolutions per minute (RPM)s were used in the MA process, and their effect on microstructure, and thermoelectric properties of p-type Bi0.5Sb1.5Te3 were systematically investigated. The crystal structure of milled powders and sintered samples were characterized using X-ray diffraction. All the powders exhibited the same morphology albeit with slight differences find at 1100 RPM conditions. A slight grain size refinement was observed on the fracture surfaces from 500 to 1100 RPM specimens. The temperature dependence of Seebeck coefficient, electrical conductivity, and power factors were measured as a function of temperature with different RPM conditions. The power factor shows almost same (~3.5 W/mK2 at RT) for all samples due to unchanged Seebeck and electrical conductivity values. The peak ZT of 1.07 at 375K is obtained for 1100 RPM specimen due to low thermal conductivity.

TAGS-90 compound powder was directly prepared from the elements by high-energy ball milling (HEBM) and subsequently consolidated by a spark plasma sintering (SPS). Effect of milling time on the microstructure and thermoelectric properties of the samples were investigated. The particle size of fabricated powders were decreased with increasing milling time, finally fine particles with ~1μm size was obtained at 90 min. The SPS samples exhibited higher relative densities (>99%) with fine grain size. X-ray diffraction analysis (XRD) and energy dispersion analysis (EDS) results revealed that all the samples were single phase of GeTe with exact composition. The electrical conductivity of samples were decreased with milling time, whereas Seebeck coefficient increased over the temperature range of RT~450°C. The highest power factor was 1.12×10−3W/mK2 obtained for the sample with 90 min milling at 450°C.

In this research, effect of the various mechanical milling process on morphology and microstructural changes of nano and micron Al-powders was studied. The milling of Al-powders was performed by both high energy and low energy ball milling process. The influence of milling (pulverizing) energy on the structural changes of Al-powders was studied. Al-nanoparticles were agglomerated during the MA and its size was increased with increasing milling while micron Al-powder gets flattened shape during high energy ball milling due to severe plastic deformation. Meanwhile, structural evolution during high energy ball milling of the nano powder occurred faster than that of the micron powder. A slight shift in the position of X-ray diffraction peaks was observed in nano Al-powders but it was un-altered in macro Al-powders. The variation in lattice parameters was observed only for nano Al powders during the high energy ball milling due to lattice distortion.

In this study, single phase polycrystalline Zn4Sb3 as well as 11 at.% Zn-rich Zn4Sb3 alloy having ε-Zn4Sb3 (majority phase) and Zn (minority phase) phases bulk samples produced by gas-atomization and subsequently consolidated by spark plasma sintering (SPS) process. The crystal structures were analyzed by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and cross-sectional microstructure were observed by the scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The internal grain microstructure of 11at.% Zn-rich Zn4Sb3 powders shows lamellar structure. Relative density, Vickers hardness and crack lengths were measured to investigate the effect of sintering temperature of Zn4Sb3 samples which are sintered at 653, 673 and 693 K. Relative density of the single phase bulk Zn4Sb3 sample reached to 99.2% of its theoretical density. The micro Vickers hardness of three different sintering temperatures were found around 2.17 – 2.236 GPa.

In this research, p-type BiSbTe/ZrO2 nanocomposite powders were fabricated by high-energy ball milling. Different weight percentages of ZrO2 (2, 4, and 6wt. %) nanoparticles were incorporated into the bulk (BiSbTe) matrix by consolidation of as-synthesized nanocomposites (NCs) powder by spark plasma sintering at 673 K. The phase and existence of ZrO2 nano-inclusions was confirmed by X-ray diffraction and transmission electron microscopy-selected area electron diffraction analysis. The Seebeck coefficient of the BiSbTe/ZrO2 NCs was significantly improved (~36% for 4wt. % added NCs) by a decrease in the carrier concentration and energy filtering effect, whereas the thermal conductivity was much reduced via strong scattering of carriers/phonons. The peak thermoelectric figureof- merit (1.34±06) was obtained for BiSbTe into which 2wt. % ZrO2 was dispersed, which was approximately 20% greater than that of the undispersed sample. The hardness of the nanocomposites was significantly improved (~27%) due to grain-boundary hardening and a dispersion strengthening mechanism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]