In Situ Neutron Scattering Study of Nanostructured PbTe-PbS Bulk Thermoelectric Material

Fei Ren, Robert Schmidt, Eldon D. Case, Ke An

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

4 Scopus citations

Abstract

Nanostructures play an important role in thermoelectric materials. Their thermal stability, such as phase change and evolution at elevated temperatures, is thus of great interest to the thermoelectric community. In this study, in situ neutron diffraction was used to examine the phase evolution of nanostructured bulk PbTe-PbS materials fabricated using hot pressing and pulsed electrical current sintering (PECS). The PbS second phase was observed in all samples in the as-pressed condition. The temperature dependent lattice parameter and phase composition data show an initial formation of PbS precipitates followed by a redissolution during heating. The redissolution process started around 570–600 K, and completed at approximately 780 K. During cooling, the PECS sample followed a reversible curve while the heating/cooling behavior of the hot pressed sample was irreversible.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)2604-2610
Number of pages7
JournalJournal of Electronic Materials
Volume46
Issue number5
DOIs
StatePublished - May 1 2017

Funding

The authors acknowledge the financial support from Temple University faculty start-up fund and the Department of Energy, “Revolutionary Materials for Solid State Energy Conversion Center,” an Energy Frontier Research Center funded by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Sciences under award number DE-SC0001054. Research conducted at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) Spallation Neutron Source was sponsored by the Scientific User Facilities Division, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, US Department of Energy. The authors also thank Dr. Dong Ma and Ms. Hui Yang of ORNL for their technical assistance.

Keywords

  • Bulk material
  • nanostructure
  • neutron scattering
  • thermal stability
  • thermoelectric

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'In Situ Neutron Scattering Study of Nanostructured PbTe-PbS Bulk Thermoelectric Material'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this