An Experimental Study on the Thermal Stability of MgSi/Ni Interface under Thermal Cycling.

MgSi is a promising eco-friendly thermoelectric material, and Ni is suited for electrical contact on it. In this study, Bi-doped MgSi ingots with Ni contacts were fabricated by co-sintering, and thermal stability was investigated by long-time (500 h, 500 cycles) temperature cycling from 25 °C to a peak temperature ( = 400 and 450 °C) in N. The as-sintered Ni/MgSi interfacial region is a multilayer consisting of MgBi, a series of MgSiNi ternary compounds (ω, ν, ζ, and η-phases), and MgNi.

Enhanced thermoelectric properties of AgSbTe obtained by controlling heterophases with Ce doping.

We report the enhanced thermoelectric properties of Ce-doped AgSbTe (AgSbCeTe) compounds. As the Ce contents increased, the proportion of heterophase AgTe in the AgSbTe gradually decreased, along with the size of the crystals. The electrical resistivity and Seebeck coefficient were dramatically affected by Ce doping and the lattice thermal conductivity was reduced.

Deposition of n-Type Bi2Te3 Thin Films on Polyimide by Using RF Magnetron Co-Sputtering Method.

Bi2Te3 thermoelectric thin films were deposited on the flexible polyimide substrates by RF magnetron co-sputtering of a Bi and a Te targets. The influence of the substrate temperature and RF power on the microstructure, chemical composition, and the thermoelectric properties of the sputtered films was investigated by using scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, and in-plane resistivity/Seebeck coefficient measurement. It was shown that the thermoelectric properties of the films depend sensitively on the Bi/Te chemical composition ratio and the substrate temperature, and the layered structure was clearly observed from the cross section of the (00L)-oriented, nearly stoichiometric Bi2Te3 films when the substrate temperature is higher than 250 °C.