Bi2Te3-based compounds are currently the
most commercially relevant thermoelectric materials near room temperature.
They are prepared via hot pressing, hot deformation, spark plasma
sintering, and other consolidation processes, which are typically
performed at 400–500 °C. Such high-temperature processes
are energy-intensive and generate unnecessary waste heat, making them
undesirable for a large-scale production. In this study, a low-temperature
liquid-phase-assisted sintering (or so-called cold-sintering) process
was employed to fabricate p-type Bi0.5Sb1.5Te3 bulk materials at temperatures below 150 °C. At the
optimal sintering temperature (130 °C), a ZT value as high as
0.56 at 450 K can be achieved, competitive to that of a commercial
Bi0.5Sb1.5Te3 ingot (ZT 0.8–1.0).
The addition of a small amount of transient liquid facilitates grain
reorientation and expedites a mass transfer process under axial compaction
and liquid evaporation conditions, thus resulting in nearly fully
densified Bi0.5Sb1.5Te3 pellet samples
(>97% theoretical density). Furthermore, the low-temperature sintering
process results in the reduction of grain size and promotes twin boundaries,
resulting in a low lattice thermal conductivity of 0.57 W m–1 K–1 at 380 K due to phonon scattering. The strategy
reported in this work can be used not only as a substitute for high-temperature
sintering of other thermoelectric materials but also to engineer phonon
scattering for high-performance thermoelectrics.
Couple-based interventions may be an adjunctive method for cancer patients and their spouses to improve HRQoL. Further study concerning couple-based skill training and blending intervention are needed to better understand intervention effects.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.