Impact of Different Conditions of Technological Process on Thermoelectric Properties of Fine-Grained PbTe

Abstract

The aim of this work was to obtain PbTe material in the desired way in order to control the combined impact of lattice disorder, nanoscale precipitates and reduced grain sizes on the thermoelectric properties of this material. To achieve this, PbTe ingot doped with Ag was obtained by the Bridgman method, followed by ball-milling, cold pressing and sintering. In order to estimate crystallites diameters grain size measurements were carried out using the optical microscopy. Studies of electrical and thermoelectric properties of fine-grained material were performed. In order to analyze the morphology and the composition scanning electron microscopy and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy were performed. Energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy analysis also revealed presence of Ag-Te precipitates.