Comparative Studies of Different Thermal Consolidation Techniques on Thermoelectric Properties of BiTeSe Alloy

In this research, we produced polycrystalline n-type $Bi_2Te_{2.7}Se_{0.3}$ powder using water atomization. To obtain full benefit through water atomized powder, we have implemented spark plasma sintering and hot extrusion for powder compaction. The microstructure and thermoelectric properties were investigated and compared. The average grain size of SPS and extruded bulks were 3.08 and $3.86{\mu}m$ respectively. The extruded material microstructure contains layered grains with less grain boundaries and its counter-part SPS displays dense packed grains with high grain boundaries. Among both bulks, extrusion sample exhibited high power factor (PF) of $2.96{\times}10^{-3}Wm^{-1}K^{-2}$ which is 38% higher than SPS ($2.14{\times}10^{-3}$) bulk sample. Due to variations in grain size and grain boundaries, the SPS bulk shows low thermal conductivity than extruded bulk. However, the extruded bulk sample exhibited a peak ZT of 0.69 at 400 K, which is 19% higher than SPS bulk sample, due to its higher power factor.

BiTeSe 합금의 열적성형방법에 따른 열전특성