Mechanical Alloying of BiTe and BiSbTe Thermoelectric Materials

Abstract

Two thermoelectric materials, BiTe and BiSbTe were prepared by mechanical attrition of elemental powders in a rare gas atmosphere. Nearly 20 min were required for the alloying of BiTe, while 10 h were required for BiSbTe. After attrition, the average powder diameter of the BiSbTe alloy was in 1.4 μm, and the impurity content, measured by Inductively Coupled Argon Plasma Emission Spectrophotometer, was less than 0.1 mass%. The MA powders were sintered by a hot pressing technique. Uniform elemental dispersions were measured by EPMA in BiSbTe alloys sintered at 623 K.