Abstract
Cu2Se is a promising material for high temperature thermoelectric energy conversion due to its unique combination of excellent electronic properties and low thermal conductivity owing to its ionic liquid characteristics at high temperature. In this paper, fully dense single-phase bulk Cu2Se material was prepared by the combination of self-propagating high-temperature synthesis (SHS) with in situ quick pressing (QP) for the first time. This new approach shortens the duration of the synthesis from days to hours compared to conventional preparation methods. SHS-QP technique is an ultra-fast preparation method, which utilizes the heat released by the SHS reaction and an external applied pressure to achieve the synthesis and densification of materials in one-step. The ultra-fast process of the SHS-QP technique enables the fabrication of single-phase Cu2Se bulk materials with relative density of over 98% and with precise control over the stoichiometry owing to the ability to suppress the Se vapor during the reaction. The SHS-QP prepared Cu2Se samples exhibit excellent thermoelectric figure of merit, ZT ∼ 1.5 at 900 K, which is comparable to those of Cu2Se materials prepared by conventional methods. This study opens a new avenue for the ultra-fast and low-cost fabrication of Cu2Se thermoelectric materials.
Highlights
A large increase in the global energy demand along with increasing awareness of environmental pollution has made the development of renewable energy sources of tremendous importance
Due to the existence of preferred orientation in the sample prepared by SHS-quick pressing (QP), and the preferred orientation is pressure dependent, we studied the effects of orientation and pressure on thermoelectric properties
Fully dense single-phase Cu2Se bulk material was prepared by self-propagating high-temperature synthesis (SHS) followed by in situ quick pressing (QP) for the rst time
Summary
A large increase in the global energy demand along with increasing awareness of environmental pollution has made the development of renewable energy sources of tremendous importance. We have improved on the SHS technique by incorporating an in situ quick pressing (QP) in order to achieve a fully dense bulk material in just one step This new technique called “selfpropagating high-temperature synthesis combined with quick pressing” (SHS-QP) technique is a simple and economical method to fabricate ceramics. It retains the advantages of SHS technology, such as low cost and simple process, but it overcomes the disadvantage of the uncompact products, which greatly saves the cost.[32,33] The process of SHS-QP is very simple: a quick and large mechanical force is applied to the sample immediately a er the SHS reaction is completed, while the sample is still red-hot and so. The thermoelectric properties of the SHS-QP prepared Cu2Se are excellent with the gure of merit, ZT $ 1.5 achieved at 900 K, which is comparable to those of Cu2Se prepared by conventional methods.[8,17]
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