Publication Date:
2014-10-17
Description:
Recovery and grain growth behavior is investigated systematically for the nanocrystalline thermoelectric compound bismuth telluride, synthesized by mechanical alloying. During annealing treatments at elevated temperatures, structural evolution is tracked using x-ray diffraction, electron microscopy and calorimetry. Below a homologous temperature of about 0.6 T m , grain growth occurs slowly with an activation energy of 89 kJ/mol. However above this temperature grain growth becomes more rampant with an activation energy of 242 kJ/mol. The transition is attributed to a shift from a relaxation or recovery process that includes some reordering of the grain boundary structure, to a more conventional diffusionally-limited grain growth process. By extrapolating the measured grain growth and microstrain evolution kinetics, a thermal budget map is constructed, permitting recommendations for improving the thermoelectric properties of nanocrystalline materials processed via a powder route.
Print ISSN:
0021-8979
Electronic ISSN:
1089-7550
Topics:
Physics
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