Method for manufacturing thermoelectric materials

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9761778-B2
Application number	US-201414440331-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 5, 2014
Priority date	Sep 9, 2013
Publication date	Sep 12, 2017
Grant date	Sep 12, 2017

Abstract

Disclosed is a method for manufacturing a thermoelectric material having high thermoelectric conversion performance in a broad temperature range. The method for manufacturing a thermoelectric material according to the present disclosure includes forming a mixture by weighing Cu and Se based on the following chemical formula 1 and mixing the Cu and the Se, and forming a compound by thermally treating the mixture: <Chemical Formula 1> Cu x Se where 2<x≦2.6.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method for manufacturing a thermoelectric material, comprising:
forming a mixture by weighing Cu and Se based on the following chemical formula 1 and mixing the Cu and the Se;
forming a compound by thermally treating the mixture:
Cu x Se  <Chemical Formula 1>

where 2<x≦2.6; and
after the forming of the compound, sintering the compound under pressure,
wherein Cu-containing particles are formed at a grain boundary in a matrix including the Cu and the Se during the pressure sintering, the Cu-containing particles including nano-dots,
wherein the forming of the compound is performed by a solid state reaction method.

2. The method of manufacturing a thermoelectric material according to claim 1 , wherein the forming of the compound is performed in a temperature range of 200° C. to 650° C.

3. The method for manufacturing a thermoelectric material according to claim 1 , wherein the pressure sintering is performed by a hot press or spark plasma sintering technique.

4. The method for manufacturing a thermoelectric material according to claim 1 , wherein the pressure sintering is performed under a pressure condition of 30 MPa to 200 MPa.

5. The method for manufacturing a thermoelectric material according to claim 1 , wherein the pressure sintering comprises grinding the compound into powder and sintering under pressure.

6. The method for manufacturing a thermoelectric material according to claim 1 , wherein the forming of the mixture comprises mixing Cu and Se in powder form.

7. The method for manufacturing a thermoelectric material according to claim 1 , wherein the nanoparticles include copper oxide.

8. The method for manufacturing a thermoelectric material according to claim 1 , wherein the thermoelectric material has a ZT value greater than or equal to 0.3 over a temperature range of 100° C. to 600° C.

9. The method for manufacturing a thermoelectric material according to claim 1 , wherein sintering the compound under pressure includes hot press sintering the compound under a vacuum condition.

10. The method for manufacturing a thermoelectric material according to claim 9 , wherein the compound is hot press sintered at a temperature of 650° C.

Assignees

• Lg Chemical Ltd

Inventors

• Ko Kyung-Moon
• Kim Tae-Hoon
• Park Cheol-Hee
• Lee Jae-Ki

Classifications

• C04B2235/85

  Intergranular or grain boundary phases · CPC title

• C04B35/645

  Pressure sintering · CPC title

• C04B2235/9607

  Thermal properties, e.g. thermal expansion coefficient · CPC title

• C04B2235/446

  Sulfides, tellurides or selenides · CPC title

• C04B2235/407

  Copper · CPC title