Powder processing and mechanical properties of Silver0.86Lead19Antimony telluride20 (LAST) and Lead0.95Tin0.05Tellurium - Lead sulfide 8% (Lead telluride -Lead sulfide) thermoelectric materials

Thermoelectric (TE) materials convert between thermal and electrical energy and when used with existing processes will increase the efficiency via waste heat recovery. Ag0.86Pb19SbTe20 (LAST) and Pb0.95Sn0.05Te - PbS 8% (PbTe-PbS) materials exhibit good thermoelectric (TE) properties and have potential applications as thermoelectric generators in waste heat recovery. However, to fully characterize the thermo-mechanical behavior of LAST and PbTe-PbS materials under in-service conditions, knowledge is needed of the mechanical and thermal properties at room and high temperature.;As fracture strength is inversely proportional to the square root of grain size, cast ingots were powder processed to reduce powder particle size. Three different powder processing methods were used (1) dry milling only, (2) wet milling only, or (3) dry milling and wet milling The specimens were fabricated using hot pressing or pulsed electric current sintering (PECS) from planetary ball milled powders.;In this study, elastic moduli, including Young's modulus, shear modulus, and Poisson's ratio, were measured dynamically using resonant ultrasound spectroscopy (RUS) at room temperature and as a function of temperature up to 663 K. The room temperature porosity dependence for Young's modulus followed the empirical exponential relationships common for brittle materials, with a material dependent constant bPE of 3.5 and 1.3 for LAST and PbTe-PbS, respectively. The room temperature Young's modulus for a theoretically dense specimen was 58.4 +/- 0.6 GPa and 56.2 +/- 0.4 GPa for for LAST and PbTe-PbS, respectively. For hot pressed PbTe-PbS specimens, the Vickers indentations mean hardness and fracture toughness was 1.18 + 0.09 GPa and 0.35 +/- 0.04 MPa·m 1/2.;The coefficient of thermal expansion is important for understanding the mechanical response of a material to a thermal gradient or a thermal transient. For PbTe-PbS the coefficient of thermal expansion measured using dilatometry and high temperature x-ray diffraction was 21.5 x 10-6 K -1.;Bloating during post-densification annealing was measured indirectly using resonant ultrasound spectroscopy and dilatometry and directly using scanning electron microscopy. Dry milled only PECS-processed PbTe-PbS specimens did not bloat during post-densification anneals up to 936 K. Hot pressed and PECS-processed specimens processed from wet milled and dry and wet milled powder bloated during densification anneals at temperatures over 603 K.