The effect of powder pre-treatment on the mechanical and thermoelectric properties of spark plasma sintered N-type bismuth telluride

The effect of N-type (Bi0.95 Sb0.05)2(Se0.05 Te0.95)3 powder pre-treatments, including annealing and powder oxide reduction, was determined in terms of both the mechanical and thermoelectric properties for bodies fabricated using spark plasma sintering (SPS). The uniaxial tensile strength was measured and the figure of merit “ZT” was calculated both parallel and perpendicular to the sintering pressure direction. The powder oxide reduction …