• Journal of Powder Materials
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.254-259
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• 2015

$Bi_2Te_3$ related compounds show the best thermoelectric properties at room temperature. However, n-type $Bi_2Te_{2.7}Se_{0.3}$ showed no improvement on ZT values. To improve the thermolectric propterties of n-type $Bi_2Te_{2.7}Se_{0.3}$, this research has Cu-doped n-type powder. This study focused on effects of Cu-doping method on the thermoelectric properties of n-type materials, and evaluated the comparison between the Cu chemical and mechanical doping. The synthesized powder was manufactured by the spark plasma sintering(SPS). The thermoelectric properties of the sintered body were evaluated by measuring their Seebeck coefficient, electrical resistivity, thermal conductivity, and hall coefficient. An introduction of a small amount of Cu reduced the thermal conductivity and improved the electrical properties with Seebeck coefficient. The authors provided the optimal concentration of $Cu_{0.1}Bi_{1.99}Se_{0.3}Te_{2.7}$. A figure of merit (ZT) value of 1.22 was obtained for $Cu_{0.1}Bi_{1.9}Se_{0.3}Te_{2.7}$ at 373K by Cu chemical doping, which was obviously higher than those of $Cu_{0.1}Bi_{1.9}Se_{0.3}Te_{2.7}$ at 373K by Cu mechanical doping (ZT=0.56) and Cu-free $Bi_2Se_{0.3}Te_{2.7}$ (ZT=0.51).

• Journal of Powder Materials
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• v.18 no.5
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• pp.437-442
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• 2011

The present study focused on the synthesis of Bi-Te-Se-based powder by an oxide-reduction process, and analysis of the thermoelectric properties of the synthesized powder. The phase structure, chemical composition, and morphology of the synthesized powder were analyzed by XRD, EPMA and SEM. The synthesized powder was sintered by spark plasma sintering. The thermoelectric properties of the sintered body were evaluated by measuring its Seebeck coefficient, electrical resistivity, and thermal conductivity. $Bi_2Te_{2.7}Se_{0.3}$ powder was synthesized from a mixture of $Bi_2O_3$, $TeO_2$, and $SeO_2$ powders by mechanical milling, calcination, and reduction. The sintered body of the synthesized powder exhibited n-type thermoelectric characteristics. The thermoelectric properties of the sintered bodies depend on the reduction temperature. The Seebeck coefficient and electrical resistivity of the sintered body were increased with increasing reduction temperature. The sintered body of the $Bi_2Te_{2.7}Se_{0.3}$ powder synthesized at $360^{\circ}C$ showed about 0.5 of the figure of merit (ZT) at room temperature.

• Journal of the Microelectronics and Packaging Society
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.33-38
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• 2011

The p-type $(Bi_{0.2}Sb_{0.8})_2Te_3$ powers were fabricated by mechanical alloying and hot-pressed at temperatures of $350{\sim}550^{\circ}C$. Themoelectric properties of the hot-pressed $(Bi_{0.2}Sb_{0.8})_2Te_3$ were characterized as a function of the hot-pressing temperature. With increasing the hot-pressing temperature from $350^{\circ}C$ to $550^{\circ}C$, the Seebeck coefficient and the electrical resistivity decreased from 237 ${\mu}V/K$ to 210 ${\mu}V/K$ and 2.25 $m{\Omega}-cm$ to 1.34 $m{\Omega}-cm$, respectively. The power factor of the hot-pressed $(Bi_{0.2}Sb_{0.8})_2Te_3$ became larger from $24.95{\times}10^{-4}W/m-K^2$ to $32.85{\times}10^{-4}W/m-K^2$ with increasing the hot-pressing temperature from $350^{\circ}C$ to $550^{\circ}C$. Among the specimens hot-pressed at $350{\sim}550^{\circ}C$, the $(Bi_{0.2}Sb_{0.8})_2Te_3$ hot-pressed at $500^{\circ}C$ exhibited the maximum dimensionless figure-of-merit of 1.09 at $25^{\circ}C$ and 1.2 at $75^{\circ}C$.

• Journal of the Microelectronics and Packaging Society
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.51-57
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• 2010

Thermoelectric properties of the p-type $(Bi,Sb)_2Te_3$, hot-pressed with the $(Bi,Sb)_2Te_3$ powders fabricated by melting/grinding method, were characterized with variation of the hot-pressing conditions. Thermoelectric characteristics of the hot-pressed $(Bi,Sb)_2Te_3$ were also analyzed with addition of $ZrO_2$ as nano inclusions. With increasing the hotpressing temperature from $350^{\circ}C$ to $550^{\circ}C$, Seebeck coefficient and electrical resistivity decreased from 275 ${\mu}V$/K to 230 ${\mu}V$/K and 6.68 $m{\Omega}$-cm to 1.86 $m{\Omega}$-cm, respectively. The power factor decreased with addition of $ZrO_2$ nano powders more than 1 vol%, implying that the optimum amount of $ZrO_2$ nano inclusions to get a maximum power factor would be less than 1 vol%.

• Journal of the Microelectronics and Packaging Society
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.15-19
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• 2013

The n-type $Bi_2(Te_{0.9}Se_{0.1})_3$ powders, which were fabricated by melting/grinding method and dispersed with 0.5 vol% $TiO_2$ nanopowders, were hot-pressed in order to investigate the effects of $TiO_2$ dispersion on the thermoelectric properties of the hot-pressed $Bi_2(Te_{0.9}Se_{0.1})_3$. Excellent thermoelectric properties such as a maximum figure-of-merit of $2.93{\times}10^{-3}/K$ and a maximum dimensionless figure-of-merit of 1.02 were obtained for the hot-pressed $Bi_2(Te_{0.9}Se_{0.1})_3$. With dispersion of 0.5 vol% $TiO_2$ nanopowders, the maximum figure-of-merit and the maximum dimensionless figure-of-merit decreased to $2.09{\times}10^{-3}/K$ and 0.68, respectively.

• Journal of the Korean Magnetics Society
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.1-6
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• 2013

Spin-orbit coupling (SOC) effect is known to be the physical origin for various exotic magnetic phenomena in the low-dimensional systems. Recently, SOC also draws lots of attention in the study on magnetically doped thermoelectric alloys to determine their properties as the thermoelectric application as well as the topological insulator via the exact electronic structures determination near the Fermi level. In this research, aiming to investigate the spin-orbit coupling effect on the structural properties such as the lattice constants and the bulk modulus of the most widely investigated thermoelectric host material, $Bi_2Te_3$, we carried out the first-principles electronic structure calculation using the all-electron FLAPW (full-potential linearized augmented plane-wave) method. Employing both the local density approximation (LDA) and the generalized gradient approximation (GGA), the structural optimization is achieved by varying the in-plane lattice constant fixing the perpendicular lattice constant and vice versa, to find that the SOC effect increases the equilibrium lattices slightly in both directions while it markedly reduces the bulk modulus value implying the strong orientational dependence, which are attributed to the material's intrinsic structural anisotropy.

• Electronic Materials Letters
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• v.14 no.6
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• pp.689-699
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• 2018

Nanostructured Ni doped $Bi_2S_3$ ($Bi_{2-x}Ni_xS_3$, $0{\leq}x{\leq}0.07$) is explored as a candidate for telluride free thermoelectric material, through a combination process of mechanical alloying with subsequent consolidation by cold pressing followed with a sintering process. The cold pressing method was found to impact the thermoelectric properties in two ways: (1) introduction of the dopant atom in the interstitial sites of the crystal lattice which results in an increase in carrier concentration, and (2) introduction of a porous structure which reduces the thermal conductivity. The electrical resistivity of $Bi_2S_3$ was decreased by adding Ni atoms, which shows a minimum value of $2.35{\times}10^{-3}{\Omega}m$ at $300^{\circ}C$ for $Bi_{1.99}Ni_{0.01}S_3$ sample. The presence of porous structures gives a significant effect on reduction of thermal conductivity, by a reduction of ~ 59.6% compared to a high density $Bi_2S_3$. The thermal conductivity of $Bi_{2-x}Ni_xS_3$ ranges from 0.31 to 0.52 W/m K in the temperature range of $27^{\circ}C$ (RT) to $300^{\circ}C$ with the lowest ${\kappa}$ values of $Bi_2S_3$ compared to the previous works. A maximum ZT value of 0.13 at $300^{\circ}C$ was achieved for $Bi_{1.99}Ni_{0.01}S_3$ sample, which is about 2.6 times higher than (0.05) of $Bi_2S_3$ sample. This work show an optimization pathway to improve thermoelectric performance of $Bi_2S_3$ through Ni doping and introduction of porosity.