Thermoelectric properties of magnesium silicide processed by powdered elements plasma activated sintering method

Efficient, inexpensive and non-toxic thermoelectric elements such as silicides should be developed for large scale application such as recovering the combustion heat of municipal solid waste, of which the characteristics are greatly fitted to thermoelectric power generation. This paper introduces the characterization and thermoelectric properties of undoped and doped n-type magnesium silicide processed by the powdered elements spark plasma sintering method. The patterns by powder X-ray diffractometry showed that it had typical polycrystalline phase. The temperature dependence of thermoelectric properties such as the Seebeck coefficient and electrical conductivity were measured for the temperature range from 300 K to 773 K. As a result, a power factor value 6.0/spl times/10/sup -4/ (W/mK/sup 2/) was obtained at 773 K for a doped sample.