University of Houston System

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Qing Jie

Zhifeng Ren

Gang Paul Chen

Huaizhou Zhao

Yucheng Lan

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