Friction Consolidation Processing of n-Type Bismuth-Telluride Thermoelectric Material

Refined grain sizes and texture alignment have been shown to improve transport properties in bismuth-telluride (Bi2Te3) based thermoelectric materials. In this work we demonstrate a new approach, called friction consolidation processing (FCP), for consolidating Bi2Te3 thermoelectric powders into bulk form with a high degree of grain refinement and texture alignment. FCP is a solid-state process wherein a rotating tool is used to generate severe plastic deformation within the Bi2Te3 powder, resulting in a recrystallizing flow of material. Upon cooling, the far-from-equilibrium microstructure within the flow can be retained in the material. FCP was demonstrated on n-type Bi2Te3 feedstock powder having a −325 mesh size to form pucks with a diameter of 25.4 mm and thickness of 4.2 mm. Microstructural analysis confirmed that FCP can achieve highly textured bulk materials, with sub-micrometer grain size, directly from coarse feedstock powders in a single process. An average grain size of 0.8 μm was determined for regions of one sample and a multiple of uniform distribution (MUD) value of 15.49 was calculated for the (0001) pole figure of another sample. These results indicate that FCP can yield ultra-fine grains and textural alignment of the (0001) basal planes in Bi2Te3. ZT = 0.37 at 336 K was achieved for undoped stoichiometric Bi2Te3, which approximates literature values of ZT = 0.4–0.5. These results point toward the ability to fabricate bulk thermoelectric materials with refined microstructure and desirable texture using far-from-equilibrium FCP solid-state processing.