通过悬浮熔炼的方法制备了half-Heusler热电材料Zr(Hf)NiSn(Sb)合金,并进一步通过快速凝固来细化晶粒,通过放电等离子烧结制备块材并测试其热电性能.X射线衍射分析表明获得了单相Half-Heusler化合物.扫描电子显微观察发现,快速凝固后的样品晶粒尺寸在500nm左右,放电等离子烧结后晶粒尺寸并未明显长大.同时观察到在晶粒的表面还分布了很多几十纳米尺寸的小晶粒.快速凝固的样品与熔炼样品相比具有较高的电导率及载流子浓度,据此推断在快速凝固过程中产生的纳米晶粒应为金属相.快速凝固后的样品晶界散射增多,因而具有较低的晶格热导率.
Thermoelectric materials Zr(Hf)NiSn(Sb) alloys were prepared by levitation melting followed by melt-spinning to refine the microstructure,and then consolidated by spark plasma sintering for the property measurements.XRD analysis showed that the half-Heusler phases were obtained.The microstructures of the melt spun thin ribbons were studied by the scanning electron microscope and transmission electron microscope.The thin ribbons were in the size of a few hundreds nanometers which didn't grow too much during the sintering process.Nanocrystals were found in the crystal grains.The carrier concentration increased for the melt-spinning samples compared with the levitation melting samples,indicating that the nanocrystals were metallic.The increasing boundary scattering after melt-spinning made the lattice thermal conductivity decrease.