Abstract
We report on the effects of thermal processing on the microstructure and composition of a system with overall stoichiometry of 3Cu:1Sb:3Se with the aim of producing single-phase Cu3SbSe3. It was found that slow cooling from the melt produced a multiphase material consisting of Cu2Se and CuSbSe2, but devoid of Cu3SbSe3. Cooling rapidly from the melt resulted in three-phase microstructures consisting of Cu2Se, CuSbSe2, and Cu3SbSe3. Subsequent annealing of the three-phase material between 325 and 400 ºC shifted the composition toward nearly pure Cu3SbSe3—the target compound of this work. The kinetics of the transformation into Cu3SbSe3 was successfully described using a modified Avrami model which suggests that diffusion is the rate-controlling step. Values of Young’s modulus and hardness, obtained by nanoindentation, are reported for Cu2Se, CuSbSe2, and Cu3SbSe3.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 2188-2198 |
| Number of pages | 11 |
| Journal | Journal of Materials Science |
| Volume | 48 |
| Issue number | 5 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Mar 2013 |
Funding
This study was supported by the Center on Revolutionary Materials for Solid State Energy Conversion, an Energy Frontier Research Center funded by the U. S. Department of Energy, Office of Basic Energy Sciences under Award Number DE-SC0001054 and by the Oak Ridge National Laboratory?s High Temperature Materials Laboratory User Program, which is sponsored by the U. S. Department of Energy, Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, Vehicle Technologies Program. The work at Michigan State University was supported by the National Science Foundation under award number -CBET -0754029. The summer internship of Valerie Garcia-Negron was possible through the Higher Education Research Experiences (HERE) program at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Acknowledgements This study was supported by the Center on Revolutionary Materials for Solid State Energy Conversion, an Energy Frontier Research Center funded by the U. S. Department of Energy, Office of Basic Energy Sciences under Award Number DE-SC0001054 and by the Oak Ridge National Laboratory\u2019s High Temperature Materials Laboratory User Program, which is sponsored by the U. S. Department of Energy, Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, Vehicle Technologies Program. The work at Michigan State University was supported by the National Science Foundation under award number NSF-CBET-0754029. The summer internship of Valerie Garcia-Negron was possible through the Higher Education Research Experiences (HERE) program at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.