Year: 2022
Type: article
Abstract: Microstructure plays a key role in tuning physical properties of materials.Here YbAl 3 materials with high figure of merit ZT of 0.35 at 300 K was directly synthesized with Yb and Al pure powders through one-step spark plasma sintering process in 10 min.The excellent thermoelectric performance is attributed to the simultaneous reduction in the lattice thermal conductivity by 47% and electronic thermal conductivity by 27% at 300 K.The remarkable decrease in the electronic thermal conductivity is ascribed to the enhanced scattering of electrons by nanocrystals with 5-20 nm in diameter, strip-like non-crystal with several nanometers in width and various atomic-scale distortions.The substantial decline in the lattice thermal conductivity originates from the enhanced scattering of phonons due to multi-scale microstructures spanning from nanoscale to mesoscale.This work demonstrates that one-step spark plasma sintering process is an efficient strategy to rapidly synthesize YbAl 3 materials with multi-scale microstructures and enhanced thermoelectric performance.
Source: Journal of Inorganic Materials
DOI: 10.15541/jim20220318
Language: English
Subfield: Materials Chemistry
Field: Materials Science
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W4285413406