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A5: Nanoscale and low dimensional effects
Bi0.5Sb1.5Te3 nanopowders were produced using gas atomization on a stoichiometric mixture of the elemental precursors. Through explosive shockwave consolidation, the nanopowder was compressed into a dense, well bonded, p-type bulk thermoelectric material, retaining its nanostructured characteristic without the grain growth observed with alternative densification techniques such as hot pressing or spark plasma sintering. In this paper, we report the measured thermoelectric properties over a range of temperatures and contrast with published reports on melt-grown and alternative powder metallurgy approaches. The shock consolidated bulk material exhibits a thermal conductivity that is substantially lower than the melt-grown standard. A surprising and unexpected result is that the low thermal conductivity is accompanied by an electrical conductivity that is almost twice that of the benchmark melt grown material. The thermopower is relatively low, resulting in ZTs on the order of 0.7.