Improving thermoelectric performance of TiNiSn by mixing MnNiSb in the half-Heusler structure.
Phys Chem Chem Phys
; 19(2): 1543-1550, 2017 Jan 04.
Article
em En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-27990549
ABSTRACT
The thermoelectric properties of the n-type semiconductor TiNiSn were optimized by partial substitution with metallic MnNiSb in the half Heusler structure. Herein, we study the transport properties and intrinsic phase separation in the Ti1-xMnxNiSn1-xSbx system. The alloys were prepared by arc-melting and annealed at temperatures obtained from differential thermal analysis and differential scanning calorimetry results. The phases were characterized using powder X-ray diffraction patterns, energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, and differential scanning calorimetry. After annealing, the majority phase was TiNiSn with some Ni-rich sites, and the minority phases were primarily Ti6Sn5, Sn and MnSn2. The Ni-rich sites were caused by Frenkel defects; this led to metal-like behavior in the semiconductor specimens at low temperature. For x ≤ 0.05 the samples showed an activated conduction, whereas for x > 0.05 they showed metallic character. The figure of merit for x = 0.05 was increased by 61% (zT = 0.45) in comparison with the pure TiNiSn.
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01-internacional
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MEDLINE
Idioma:
En
Ano de publicação:
2017
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Article