Method of producing thermoelectric material

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10672966-B2
Application number	US-201414303878-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 13, 2014
Priority date	May 27, 2011
Publication date	Jun 2, 2020
Grant date	Jun 2, 2020

Abstract

A process for manufacturing a thermoelectric material having a plurality of grains and grain boundaries. The process includes determining a material composition to be investigated for the thermoelectric material and then determining a range of values of grain size and/or grain boundary barrier height obtainable for the material composition using current state of the art manufacturing techniques. Thereafter, a range of figure of merit values for the material composition is determined as a function of the range of values of grain size and/or grain boundary barrier height. And finally, a thermoelectric material having the determined material composition and an average grain size and grain boundary barrier height corresponding to the maximum range of figure of merit values is manufactured.

First claim

We claim:

1. A thermoelectric material comprising:
a first matrix phase;
an inter-grain phonon scattering second phase comprising a plurality of oxide nanoparticles; and
a plurality of third phase grain boundaries, wherein said plurality of third phase grain boundaries are zinc antimony modified grain boundaries consisting of zinc and antimony with an average thickness within a range of 2-75 nm and wherein said plurality of third phase grain boundaries have a grain boundary barrier height within a range of 10-300 meV.

2. The thermoelectric material of claim 1 , wherein said first matrix phase has an average grain size within a range of 5-100 nm.

3. The thermoelectric material of claim 2 , wherein said average grain size is within a range of 5-50 nm.

4. The thermoelectric material of claim 3 , wherein said average grain size is within a range of 5-25 nm.

5. The thermoelectric material of claim 1 , wherein said first matrix phase is a bismuth antimony telluride phase.

6. The thermoelectric material of claim 1 , wherein said plurality of oxide nanoparticles have an average diameter within a range of 2-100 nm.

7. The thermoelectric material of claim 6 , wherein said average diameter is within a range of 4-50 nm.

8. The thermoelectric material of claim 7 , wherein said average diameter is within a range of 6-14 nm.

9. The thermoelectric material of claim 6 , wherein said plurality of oxide nanoparticles are zinc oxide nanoparticles.

10. The thermoelectric material of claim 1 , wherein said average thickness is within a range of 5-70 nm.

11. The thermoelectric material of claim 10 , wherein said average thickness is within a range of 10-70 nm.

12. The thermoelectric material of claim 11 , wherein said average thickness is within a range of 15-65 nm.

13. The thermoelectric material of claim 12 , wherein said average thickness is within a range of 27-61 nm.

Assignees

• Toyota Eng & Mfg North America
• Toyota Motor Co Ltd

Inventors

• Banerjee Debasish
• Rowe Michael Paul
• Zhou Li Qin
• Zhang Minjuan
• Kita Takuji

Classifications

• C01P2004/64

  Nanometer sized, i.e. from 1-100 nanometer · CPC title

• C04B2235/3281

  Copper oxides, cuprates or oxide-forming salts thereof, e.g. CuO or Cu2O · CPC title

• C04B35/547

  based on sulfides or selenides {or tellurides} · CPC title

• C04B2235/449

  Organic acids, e.g. EDTA, citrate, acetate, oxalate · CPC title

• C04B35/26

  based on ferrites · CPC title