Synthesis of ZrNiSn with high thermoelectric performance via a novel high-gravity combustion method

Abstract

In this study, a novel high-gravity combustion synthesis (HGCS) method is applied to synthesize the ZrNiSn bulks in a few seconds. The applied high-gravity field plays a crucial role in the synthesis of samples. The high-gravity field helps to reduce the porosity and thus leads to the formation of dense ZrNiSn sample only in a very short time. The high-gravity field also accelerates the transfer of matter and energy, leading to the formation of high purity phase with small grains and high density. The small grains promote the phonon scattering and the high density reduces the thermal conductivity, resulting in high figure of merit. The thermoelectric figure of merit (ZT) of the HGCS-processed ZrNiSn is 0.75 at 923 K.