Abstract

The efficiency of thermoelectric devices for different applications is known to depend on the thermoelectric effectiveness of the material which tends to grow with the increase of its chemical homogeneity. Thus an important goal for thermal devices is to obtain chemically homogeneous solid solutions. In this work, the new process with rapid solidification (melt spinning method) followed by hot pressing was investigated to produce homogeneous material. Characteristics of the material were examined with HRD, SEM, EPMA-line scan and bending test. Property variations of the materials were investigated as a function of variables, such as dopant CdCl_2 quantity and hot pressing temperature. Quenched ribbons are very brittle and consist of homogeneous Bi_2Te_3, Bi_2Se_3 solid solutions. When the process parameters were optimized, the maximum figure of merit was 2.038times10-3K-4. The bending strength of the material hot pressed at 500°C was 8.2 kgf/mm2.