1Jianjia environment technology (Suzhou) Co., Ltd., Suzhou 215000,China,2School of Material Science and Engineering, University of Ji′nan, Ji′nan 250022, China
Abstract:(Bi2Te3)x/(PbSe3)1-x are prepared by powder metallurgy method in this study. The compound powders of Bi2Te3 and PbSe are uniformly mixed and imposed by a cold-press pressure of 500 MPa, and then are sintered at 300 K for 1 hr. The microstructures and thermoelectric properties of these prepared test pieces are investigated. The studied results show that, many small particles are produced and a lot of Se pure phase is precipitated in these test pieces imposed by a great pressure, and their thermoelectric properties are seriously affected. The resistivity of the piece with x=0.4 is greater than that of other two pieces with x=0.5 and 0.6 and the resistivity of the piece with x=0.5 is the minimum at room temperature. The Seebeck coefficient of the piece with x=0.5 is the maximum (about 176.8 μV/K) at room temperature of and the Seebeck coefficient becomes greater with PbSe content increasing. The thermal conductivities of the two pieces with x=0.5 and 0.6 trend to constant for the measured temperature being more 280 K and the thermal conductivity of the piece with x=0.4 become smaller when the measured temperature is more than 230 K. The maximum value of thermal conductivity is about 1.772 W/(m·K) at room temperature for the test piece with x=0.5. The figure of merit (ZT) becomes greater with the measured temperature increasing and the maximum value of figure of merit is about 0.008 5 at room temperature for the test piece with x=0.5.