Extremely Fast and Cheap Densification of Cu₂S by Induction Melting Method

The aim of this work was to obtain dense Cu₂S superionic thermoelectric materials, homogeneous in terms of phase and chemical composition, using a very fast and cheap induction-melting technique. The chemical composition was investigated via scanning electron microscopy (SEM) combined with an energy-dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) method, and the phase composition was established by X-ray diffraction (XRD). The thermoelectric figure of merit ZT was determined on the basis of thermoelectric transport properties, i.e., Seebeck coefficient, electrical and thermal conductivity in the temperature range of 300-923 K. The obtained values of the ZT parameter are comparable with those obtained using the induction hot pressing (IHP) technique and about 30-45% higher in the temperature range of 773-923 K in comparison with Cu₂S samples densified with the spark plasma sintering (SPS) technique.