THERMODYNAMIC CALCULATIONS IN NEW THERMOELECTRIC MATERIALS. APPLICATION TO PROCESSES

摘要

The processing of electronic materials and devices is an important field of application of thermodynamics. Many growth processes of semi-conductors involve vapour-solid or liquid-solid interfaces which can be considered close to the thermodynamic equilibrium. Performance enhancement of thermoelectric modules can be obtained by a good knowledge of the constitution of the materials involved in their fabrication. Its requires a relevant thermodynamic analysis of the material.Making these optimized thermoelectric materials require at least three elements being thermoelectric materials typically multicomponent systems which are usually studied by a CALPHAD analysis of the relevant systems. All these problems are related to the thermodynamic quantities of species involved in the materials such as activities and free energy functions of electrons, holes and components. In this paper we present a contribution to a better understanding of antimony based thermoelectric materials by a CALPHAD approach.