Diffusion-controlled formation of Ti2O3 during spark-plasma synthesis

The spark-plasma-sintering (SPS) technique has successfully been applied for the single-step direct synthesis of Ti2O3 from a mixture of powders of rutile/anatase with titanium. The components react by diffusion through the grain boundaries, forming several intermediate phases locally. A single-phase material of titanium(III) oxide is obtained in compact bulk form after 180 min of SPS treatment at 1473 K. The electrical and thermal transport properties of such a SPS-prepared material measured in the temperature range between 300 and 800 K reflect the known semiconductor-to-metal transition above 400 K. The observed metallic-like electrical and thermal conductivity above this temperature is in good agreement with previously reported results. A maximum of the thermoelectric figure-of-merit ZT = 0.04 is achieved at 350 K.