University of Houston System

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Qing Jie

Zhifeng Ren

Gang Paul Chen

Gang Chen

Yucheng Lan

Huaizhou Zhao

Zhongjia Tang

Jiehe Sui

Disclosed are methods for the manufacture of n-type and p-type filled skutterudite thermoelectric legs of an electrical contact. A first material of CoSiand a dopant are ball-milled to form a first powder which is thermo-mechanically processed with a second powder of n-type skutterudite to form a n-type skutterudite layer disposed between a first layer and a third layer of the doped-CoSi. In addition, a plurality of components such as iron, and nickel, and at least one of cobalt or chromium are ball-milled form a first powder that is thermo-mechanically processed with a p-type skutterudite layer to form a p-type skutterudite layer 'second layer' disposed between a first and a third layer of the first powder. The specific contact resistance between the first layer and the skutterudite layer for both the n-type and the p-type skutterudites subsequent to hot-pressing is less than about 10.0 &#x3bc;&#x3a9;&#xb7;cm.

Fabrication of stable electrode/diffusion barrier layers for thermoelectric filled skutterudite devices

Systems and methods of manufacturing a thermoelectric, high performance material by using ball-milling and hot pressing materials according to various formulas, where some formulas substitute a different element for part of one of the elements in the formula, in order to obtain a figure of merit (ZT) suitable for thermoelectric applications.

Thermoelectric compositions and methods of fabricating high thermoelectric performance MgAgSb-based materials

A method of manufacturing a thermoelectric material comprising: ball-milling a compound comprising a plurality of components, the first component M comprising at least one of a rare earth metal, an actinide, an alkaline-earth metal, and an alkali metal, the second component T comprising a metal of subgroup VIII, and the third component X comprises a pnictogen atom. The compound may be ball-milled for up to 5 hours, and then thermo-mechanically processed by, for example, hot pressing the compound for less than two hours. Subsequent to the thermo-mechanical processing, the compound comprises a single filled skutterudite phase with a dimensionless figure of merit (ZT) above 1.0 and the compound has a composition following a formula of MTX.

Formation of P-type filled skutterudite by ball-milling and thermo-mechanical processing

Formation of p-type filled skutterudite by ball-milling and thermo-mechanical processing

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Houston, TX, United States of America

Qing Jie