Uniaxial dry–cold pressing as a rapid specimen fabrication technique aimed at dynamizing the screening of materials of thermoelectric interest: the specific case of Bi_2 Te_3 and TiS_2

摘要

The Bridgman and the chemical vapour transport are crystal growth techniques that are often used toproduce high-quality fully dense crystals, but prove impractical for the evaluation of a large number ofnew compounds. Uniaxial dry–cold pressing (UDCP) is a robust and time-efficient method to agglomerateparticulate solids and the work presented here explored it as an alternate sample preparation procedurethat will enable rapid thermoelectric evaluation of a large number of new compounds. Samples fabricatedby different methods using the chalcogenides Bi_2Te_3 (reference compound) and TiS_2 (experimentalcompound) had their Seebeck coefficients and their electrical conductivities measured. It was observedthat UDCP pellets generated a good Seebeck coefficient when compared to their monocrystallinecounterparts. Manufacturing procedures were developed for fabricating UDCP samples of Bi_2Te_3and TiS_2. The UDCP is a novel technique for the evaluation of new compounds for thermoelectricapplications.