Reaction and diffusion phenomena in Ag-doped Mg2Si

Abstract

The Ag-doped Mg2Si–based materials are known for unstable thermoelectric behavior; however, the reasons are not sufficiently understood. In this work a range of experiments, analytical tools and calculations was used to unravel some questions related to the reactivity and diffusion properties of the Ag–Mg–Si system, which might contribute to the variations of thermopower. Among these, the most informative appeared quenching and diffusion experiments, calculations of phase evolution by Fact Sage and x-ray tomography of Ag-doped materials produced from powders.