Development of Spark Plasma Syntering (SPS) technology for preparation of nanocrystalline p-type thermoelctrics based on (BiSb)2Te3

Bismuth antimony telluride is the most commonly used commercial thermoelectric material for power generation and refrigeration over the temperature range of 200–400 K. Improving the performance of these materials is a complected balance of optimizing thermoelectric properties. Decreasing the grain size of Bi0.5Sb1.5Te3 significantly reduces the thermal conductivity due to the scattering phonons on the grain boundaries. In this work, it is shown the advances of spark plasma sintering (SPS) for the preparation of nanocrystalline p-type thermoelectrics based on Bi0.5Sb1.5Te3 at different temperatures (240, 350, 400oC). The complex study of structural and thermoelectric properties of Bi0.5Sb1.5Te3 were presented. The high dimensionless thermoelectric figure of merit ZT ~ 1 or some more over 300–400 K temperature range for nanocrystalline p-type Bi0.5Sb1.5Te3 was obtained.