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In Situ Neutron Scattering Study of Nanostructured PbTe-PbS Bulk Thermoelectric Material

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Nanostructures play an important role in thermoelectric materials. Their thermal stability, such as phase change and evolution at elevated temperatures, is thus of great interest to the thermoelectric community. In this study, in situ neutron diffraction was used to examine the phase evolution of nanostructured bulk PbTe-PbS materials fabricated using hot pressing and pulsed electrical current sintering (PECS). The PbS second phase was observed in all samples in the as-pressed condition. The temperature dependent lattice parameter and phase composition data show an initial formation of PbS precipitates followed by a redissolution during heating. The redissolution process started around 570–600 K, and completed at approximately 780 K. During cooling, the PECS sample followed a reversible curve while the heating/cooling behavior of the hot pressed sample was irreversible.

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Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge the financial support from Temple University faculty start-up fund and the Department of Energy, “Revolutionary Materials for Solid State Energy Conversion Center,” an Energy Frontier Research Center funded by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Sciences under award number DE-SC0001054. Research conducted at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) Spallation Neutron Source was sponsored by the Scientific User Facilities Division, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, US Department of Energy. The authors also thank Dr. Dong Ma and Ms. Hui Yang of ORNL for their technical assistance.

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  1. Robert Schmidt

    Present address: Materials Science and Technology Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN, USA

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA, USA

    Fei Ren

  2. Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, USA

    Robert Schmidt & Eldon D. Case

  3. Chemical and Engineering Materials Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN, USA

    Ke An

Authors
  1. Fei Ren
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  2. Robert Schmidt
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  3. Eldon D. Case
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Correspondence to Fei Ren or Ke An.

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Ren, F., Schmidt, R., Case, E.D. et al. In Situ Neutron Scattering Study of Nanostructured PbTe-PbS Bulk Thermoelectric Material. J. Electron. Mater. 46, 2604–2610 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11664-016-4802-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11664-016-4802-0

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