Abstract
Thermoelectric materials exploit the Seebeck effect to convert heat into electricity or vice versa. Thermoelectric materials based on bismuth-tellurium（BiTe） are suitable in the operating range from 50 °C to 200 °C, but they are expensive because they contain rare metals of restricted availability. Hakusan Co., Ltd. has developed an alternative material based on magnesium tin silicide（MgSiSn），but its performance is deficient. With the aim of improving the performance of this MgSiSn material, we first attempted an overall optimization of the existing process by conducting five experiments using an L18 orthogonal array. Although we fell short of our goal, we gained technical knowledge that we organized as robust engineering information for use in future development work.
