Phase transformation study of Pb–Te powders during mechanical alloying

Abstract

In this study PbTe thermoelectric material was prepared by mechanical alloying using a high energy planetary ball mill. The alloy formation and phase transformation during mechanical alloying was followed by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), and the microscopic morphology was studied by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Results show that mechanical alloying is associated with an exothermic reaction between lead and tellurium which promotes the rapid formation of lead telluride and leads to a reasonable milling time (3 h) to obtain PbTe stoichiometric samples.