EAGER: Spark Plasma Sintering of Bulk Nanostructured Thermoelectric Materials

EAGER：大块纳米结构热电材料的火花等离子烧结

• 批准号: 1064818
• 负责人: Sandip Harimkar
• 金额: $ 9.99万
• 依托单位: Oklahoma State University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2011
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2011-01-15 至 2012-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1064818&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: EAGER; Spark; Plasma; Sintering; Bulk

Thermoelectric materials can directly convert thermal energy available in waste heat into electrical energy. This EArly Concept Grant for Exploratory Research (EAGER) provides funding for the development of bulk shapes of high performance nanostructured thermoelectric materials. A novel spark plasma sintering (SPS) process will be used to sinter mechanically alloyed nanostructured powder of thermoelectric compositions into bulk shapes. The SPS process will involve simultaneous application of uniaxial pressure and pulsed direct current to nanostructured powder placed in the graphite dies. The investigations of this proposal will be focused on bulk nanostructuring of bismuth telluride- and lead telluride-based compositions of thermoelectric materials. Major emphasis of the research plan will be on investigating the fundamental densification mechanisms of nanostructured thermoelectric powder during SPS and the dependence of thermoelectric performance on grain/feature size in nano-scale range ( 50 nm). Successful completion of this project will significantly advance the state-of-the-art in nanostructuring of bulk thermoelectric materials for improving the performance of these materials. The proposed investigations will provide valuable information about the influence of grain size on the thermoelectric performance which is important for optimizing the performance these materials. Since large amounts of materials are needed for energy conversion, the possibilities of fabricating bulk shapes of the nanostructured thermoelectric materials using SPS is expected to accelerate utilization of these materials in real-world thermoelectric devices. The proposed EAGER plan will provide research experiences and training to graduate and undergraduate students, and prepare them for future career in this important field of energy materials. The results of the proposed research will also be incorporated in the graduate course on Modern Materials to achieve the broader impact.

热电材料可以直接转化废热中的热能转换为电能。探索性研究的早期概念赠款（急切）为发展高性能纳米结构热电材料的散装形状提供了资金。一种新型的火花等离子体烧结（SPS）过程将用于机械合金合金的热电组合物的纳米结构粉末为散装形状。 SPS过程将涉及同时应用单轴压力，并将脉冲直流电流施加到位于石墨模具中的纳米结构粉末。对该提案的研究将集中于基于温里赖氏菌和滴答物的基于卸尿酸氢酯的批量纳米结构。研究计划的主要重点将是研究SPS期间纳米结构热电粉的基本致密机理，以及在纳米尺度范围内热电性能对谷物/特征大小的依赖性（50 nm）。该项目的成功完成将大大提高散装热电材料的纳米结构，以改善这些材料的性能。拟议的研究将提供有关晶粒尺寸对热电性能的影响的有价值的信息，这对于优化这些材料的性能很重要。由于能量转化需要大量材料，因此有望使用SPS制造纳米结构的热电材料的散装形状的可能性，预计将在现实世界中热电学设备中加速这些材料的利用。拟议的渴望计划将为研究生和本科生提供研究经验和培训，并为在这一重要的能源材料领域的未来职业做好准备。拟议研究的结果还将纳入现代材料的研究生课程中，以实现更广泛的影响。