Abstract
Environmental stability of material properties is an important factor for its utilization for electronic devices. Gases in air such as oxygen can react chemically with material and cause degradation of its properties. This work reports on effect of air on thermoelectric properties of nanostructured n-type silicon-germanium (SiGe) alloy: a well-known high temperature thermoelectric material with superior properties. Phosphorous doped SiGe alloy was synthesized via mechanical alloying followed by hot-press and characterized by powder X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, and thermoelectric measurements. The average grain size of alloyed powder was in the range 50 - 400 nm. The reduction in grain size caused decrease in thermal conductivity of SiGe alloy (2.044 W/mK at ~ 900K). To study the effect of air on the transport properties of alloy measurements were carried out in presence of air and in inert (argon) atmosphere. Interesting results have been obtained and discussed with the available literature.
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