Journal of the American Ceramic Society, Vol.98, No.12, 3813-3817, 2015
Effect of TiC Nanoinclusions on Thermoelectric and Mechanical Performance of Polycrystalline In4Se2.65
Uniformly dispersed TiC nanoparticle strengthened In4Se2.65 composites have been fabricated by a combined process of mechanical alloying (MA) and hot pressing (HP) successfully. Due to the good electrical conductivity and the extra phonon scattering effect of the TiC nanoinclusions, the electrical resistivity and thermal conductivity decrease with the TiC content up to 0.8 wt%, and a maximum ZT of 0.98 at 723 K was achieved in the sample with 0.8 wt% TiC. Taking account of the measurement uncertainly, the enhancement of ZT value by TiC nanoinclusions is less obvious. On the other hand, the mechanical performance of In4Se2.65 can be effectively improved by TiC nanoinclusions due to the dispersive strengthening effect of the nanoinclusions, and the flexural strength of the sample with 0.8 wt% TiC is improved to 73 MPa, which is over 40% higher than that of the pristine sample.