PNNL

Abstract

This work focused on the development of a new mechanical processing route, called Friction Consolidation Processing (FCP), for densifying bismuth-telluride (Bi2Te3) powders into bulk form. FCP is a solid-state process wherein a rotating tool was used to generate severe plastic deformation within the Bi2Te3 powder, resulting in a recrystallizing flow of material. Upon cooling, the non-equilibrium microstructure within the flow was locked into the material. FCP was demonstrated on -325 mesh (~44 micron) n-type Bi2Te3 feedstock powder to form pucks with 92% theoretical density having a diameter of 25.4mm and thickness of 4.2mm. FCP was shown to achieve highly textured bulk materials, with sub-micron grain size, directly from coarse particle feedstock powders in a single process. An average grain size of 0.8 microns was determined for one sample and a multiple of uniform distribution (MUD) value of 15.49 was calculated for the (0001) pole figure from another sample. These results indicate that FCP can yield highly refined grains and textural alignment of the (0001) basal planes in Bi2Te3. ZT=0.37 at 336K was achieved for undoped stoichiometric Bi2Te3, which is near the “text book” value of ZT=0.5.