Nanostructuring of thermoelectric Mg(2) Si via a nonequilibrium intermediate state
Teruyuki Ikeda1, Laura Haviez, Youli Li
1Materials Science, California Institute of Technology, 1200 California Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91125, USA. tikeda@caltech.edu
Small (Weinheim an Der Bergstrasse, Germany)
|May 1, 2012
Abstract:
A new route to self-assembled nanocomposite thermoelectric materials is proposed. High-energy mechanical alloying brings materials into a nonequilibrium intermediate state, such as a solid solution with an extended solubility. The large driving force for the transformation to the equilibrium state leads to nanometer-scale microstructure formation, which is ideal for reducing lattice thermal conductivity.
