Improving the Seebeck Coefficient and Electrical Conductivity of Fe11Ti3Al6 by Substituting Fe with Cr
摘要
In general, any attempt to increase the Seebeck coefficient is usually accompanied by a decrease in the electrical conductivity or vice versa due to the interplay between these two parameters. This work demonstrates that a simultaneous increase in both the Seebeck coefficient and electrical conductivity can be obtained by “doping” in intermetallic alloys. A new alloy composition, Fe10Cr1Ti3Al6, was synthesized by substituting Fe with Cr in Fe11Ti3Al6 using mechanical alloying and spark plasma sintering (SPS). The thermoelectric measurements revealed that the Cr substitution led to an increase in the Seebeck coefficient from +27 µV/K in Fe11Ti3Al6 to +39 µV/K in Fe10Cr1Ti3Al6, with a corresponding increase in the electrical conductivity from 2.5 × 105 S/m to 4.7 × 105 S/m, resulting in a significant increase in the power factor. The temperature dependence of the thermoelectric properties of this new alloy was also investigated over a temperature range of 50–727°C. The result showed that a maximum power factor of 6.0 × 10−4 W/m K2 was obtained at 53°C.