scholarly journals Microstructure Evolution and Mechanical Properties of Melt Spun Skutterudite-based Thermoelectric Materials

Materials ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 984 ◽  
Author(s):  
Huiyuan Geng ◽  
Jialun Zhang ◽  
Tianhong He ◽  
Lixia Zhang ◽  
Jicai Feng

The rapid solidification of melt spinning has been widely used in the fabrication of high-performance skutterudite thermoelectric materials. However, the microstructure formation mechanism of the spun ribbon and its effects on the mechanical properties are still unclear. Here, we report the microstructure evolution and mechanical properties of La–Fe–Co–Sb skutterudite alloys fabricated by both long-term annealing and melt-spinning, followed by sintering approaches. It was found that the skutterudite phase nucleated directly from the under-cooled melt and grew into submicron dendrites during the melt-spinning process. Upon heating, the spun ribbons started to form nanoscale La-rich and La-poor skutterudite phases through spinodal decomposition at temperatures as low as 473 K. The coexistence of the micron-scale grain size, the submicron-scale dendrite segregation and the nanoscale spinodal decomposition leads to high thermoelectric performance and mechanical strength. The maximum three-point bending strength of the melt spinning sample was about 195 MPa, which was 70% higher than that of the annealed sample.

2007 ◽  
Vol 534-536 ◽  
pp. 161-164 ◽  
Author(s):  
Taek Soo Kim ◽  
Byong Sun Chun

N-type Bi2Te3-Sb2Te3 solid solutions doped with CdCl2 was prepared by melt spinning, crushing and vacuum sintering processes. Microstructure, bending strength and thermoelectric property were investigated as a function of the doping quantity from 0.03wt.% to 0.10wt.% and sintering temperature from 400oC to 500oC, and finally compared with those of conventionally fabricated alloys. The alloy showed a good structural homogeneity as well as bending strength of 3.88Kgf/mm2. The highest thermoelectric figure of merit was obtained by doping 0.03wt.% and sintering at 500oC.


2005 ◽  
Vol 297-300 ◽  
pp. 875-880
Author(s):  
Cheol Ho Lim ◽  
Ki Tae Kim ◽  
Yong Hwan Kim ◽  
Dong Choul Cho ◽  
Young Sup Lee ◽  
...  

P-type Bi0.5Sb1.5Te3 compounds doped with 3wt% Te were fabricated by spark plasma sintering and their mechanical and thermoelectric properties were investigated. The sintered compounds with the bending strength of more than 50MPa and the figure-of-merit 2.9×10-3/K were obtained by controlling the mixing ratio of large powders (PL) and small powders (PS). Compared with the conventionally prepared single crystal thermoelectric materials, the bending strength was increased up to more than three times and the figure-of-merit Z was similar those of single crystals. It is expected that the mechanical properties could be improved by using hybrid powders without degradation of thermoelectric properties.


2011 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 155892501100600 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eric Devaux ◽  
Carole Aubry ◽  
Christine Campagne ◽  
Maryline Rochery

Polylactide (PLA) was mixed with 4 wt.% of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) to produce electrical conductive multifilament yarns by melt spinning process for humidity detection. Thanks to a variation of electrical conductivity, this flexible sensor could detect the moisture presence. The introduction of plasticizer was necessary to ensure higher fluidity and drawability of the blend during the spinning process. The plasticizer modifies the crystallinity and the mechanical properties of the yarns. The effectiveness of this sensor (PLA/4 wt.% CNTs fibres) sensitive to humidity, is optimal when the spinning conditions are adapted. In this way, the temperature and the rate of the drawing roll were reduced. The influence of these parameters on the crystallinity, the mechanical properties and the sensitivity of the yarns were studied. Once the appropriate spinning conditions found, one humidity sensitive yarn was processed and the repeatability and efficient reversibility of its sensitivity were highlighted.


2014 ◽  
Vol 633 ◽  
pp. 193-197 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yun Long Ai ◽  
Xiang Hua Xie ◽  
Wen He ◽  
Bing Liang Liang ◽  
Wei Hua Chen

ZrO2 doped with 7.5% (volume percent) nanoalumina ceramics were prepared by microwave sintering processes. The effects of nanoalumina additions and various sintering temperature on densification, phase composition, microstructure and mechanical properties of Al2O3-ZrO2 ceramics were investigated. The results show that the m-ZrO2 phase transformed into t-ZrO2 during the process of microwave sintering. Relative densities between 95% and 99% were attained in the different conditions. In any cases the grain size was maintained at a submicron scale at a processing microwave sintering. The presence of Al2O3 grains had an effect of hindering grain growth of ZrO2 grains. When the microwave sintering temperature was 1500°C, 7.5Al2O3-ZrO2 composite ceramics presented excellent mechanical properties: HV=12.0 GPa, σf=715.7 Mpa, KIC=11.9 MPa·m1/2. Compared with that of pure ZrO2 ceramic, the bending strength and the fracture toughness were improved 45% and 23% at least, respectively. The fracture mode was associated with sintering temperature: when the sintering temperature was 1350°C~1450°C, the intergranular fracture and transgranular fracture coexisted; when the sintering temperature was 1500°C, intergranular fracture was the main fracture mode.


2013 ◽  
Vol 2013 ◽  
pp. 1-5 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xuan Truong Nguyen ◽  
Hong Ky Vu ◽  
Hung Manh Do ◽  
Van Khanh Nguyen ◽  
Van Vuong Nguyen

The ribbons Nd2Fe14B/Fe-Co were prepared with the nominal composition Nd16Fe76B8/40% wt. Fe65Co35by the conventional and the developed magnetic field-assisted melt-spinning (MFMS) techniques. Both ribbons are nanocomposites with the smooth single-phase-like magnetization loops. The 0.32 T magnetic field perpendicular to the wheel surface and assisting the melt-spinning process reduces the grain size inside the ribbon, increases the texture of the ribbon, improves the exchange coupling, and, in sequence, increases the energy product(BH)maxof the isotropic powdered samples of MFMS ribbon in ~9% by comparison with that of the ribbon melt-spun conventionally. The grain size reduction effect caused by the assisted magnetic field has also been described quantitatively. The MFMS technique seems to be promising for producing high-performance nanocomposite ribbons.


2014 ◽  
Vol 2014 ◽  
pp. 1-5
Author(s):  
Dan Kang ◽  
Feng Xu ◽  
Xiao-fang Hu ◽  
Bo Dong ◽  
Yu Xiao ◽  
...  

In order to study the influence on the mechanical properties caused by microstructure evolution of metal powder in extreme environment, 3D real-time observation of the microstructure evolution of Al-Ti mixed powder in high temperature and microwave compound fields was realized by using synchrotron radiation computerized topography (SR-CT) technique; the spatial resolution was enhanced to 0.37 μm/pixel through the designed equipment and the introduction of excellent reconstruction method for the first time. The process of microstructure evolution during sintering was clearly distinguished from 2D and 3D reconstructed images. Typical sintering parameters such as sintering neck size, porosity, and particle size of the sample were presented for quantitative analysis of the influence on the mechanical properties and the sintering kinetics during microwave sintering. The neck size-time curve was obtained and the neck growth exponent was 7.3, which indicated that surface diffusion was the main diffusion mechanism; the reason was the eddy current loss induced by the external microwave fields providing an additional driving force for mass diffusion on the particle surface. From the reconstructed images and the curve of porosity and average particle size versus temperature, it was believed that the presence of liquid phase aluminum accelerated the densification and particle growth.


2019 ◽  
Vol 90 (5-6) ◽  
pp. 547-560 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiang Yan ◽  
Aurélie Cayla ◽  
Fabien Salaün ◽  
Eric Devaux ◽  
Pengqing Liu ◽  
...  

In this study, a series of immiscible polymer blend fibers with polypropylene (PP) and polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) was obtained by a melt spinning process, and two different draw ratios were attempted. Efforts were made to obtain the porous PP fibers by removing the water-soluble PVA phase. The thermal properties of the blends were tested by thermogravimetric analysis and differential scanning calorimetry. The blends showed excellent thermal stability and differentiated fractionated crystallization behaviors of PP. The melt flow indexes of the blends were evaluated, exhibiting a higher fluidity than that of the neat polymers. Among the possible candidates for the spinning process, only the PP70–PVA30 had suitable spinnability, for which the draw ratio reached 3. The morphology of the fibers was investigated by selective extraction experiment and scanning electron microscopy, as well as wide-angle X-ray diffraction. The biphasic morphology and the crystallization behaviors varied according to the PVA content. Furthermore, the mechanical properties of the multifilament fibers were studied via tensile testing and dynamical mechanical analysis. The 70/30 weight ratio (PP/PVA) was the most suitable for producing biphasic fibers with a high degree of accessibility in PVA and mechanical properties that increase with the increase in the drawing ratio. The feasibility of fabric knitting was checked, and the mechanical properties and air permeability of the obtained textile structure were also evaluated.


Polymers ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 729
Author(s):  
Renwei Xu ◽  
Peng Zhang ◽  
Hai Wang ◽  
Xu Chen ◽  
Jie Xiong ◽  
...  

An isotactic polypropylene (iPP-1) resin with low melting temperature (Tm) is synthesized by a metallocene catalyst and investigated for melt-spun fiber applications. The structure, thermal and mechanical properties, and feasibility of producing fibers of a commercial metallocene iPP (iPP-2) and a conventional Ziegler–Natta iPP (iPP-3) are carefully examined for comparison. Tm of iPP-1 is about 10 °C lower than the other two samples, which is well addressed both in the resin and the fiber products. Besides, the newly developed iPP-1 possesses higher isotacticity and crystallinity than the commercial ones, which assures the mechanical properties of the fiber products. Thanks to the addition of calcium stearate, its crystal grain size is smaller than those of the two other commercial iPPs. iPP-1 shows a similar rheological behavior as the commercial ones and good spinnability within a wide range of take-up speeds (1200–2750 m/min). The tensile property of fibers from iPP-1 is better than commercial ones, which can fulfill the application requirement. The formation of the mesomorphic phase in iPP-1 during melt spinning is confirmed by the orientation and crystallization investigation with wide angle X-ray diffraction (WAXD), which is responsible for its excellent processing capability and the mechanical properties of the resultant fibers. The work may provide not only a promising candidate for the high-performance PP fiber but also a deep understanding of the formation mechanism of the mesomorphic phase during fiber spinning.


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