Thesis
Ultrafast pulsed light sintering of thermoelectric nanoparticles
Washington State University
Master of Science (MS), Washington State University
2017
Handle:
https://hdl.handle.net/2376/101973
Abstract
Intense pulse light (IPL) sintering is a large-area, rapid method to sinter nanoparticles under ambient conditions and is emerging as a low-cost manufacturing technique to create functional films for various emerging applications. In this work, IPL sintering of Bismuth Telluride based thermoelectric (TE) nanoparticles is presented to fabricate conductive TE films for various applications. A detailed study of the physics of the process is carried out that includes microstructural observations before and after the sintering process and modeling of the particle coalescence under the light energy. Xenon UV light was used with single and multiple pulses to sinter BiTeSe TE nanoparticles on glass and flexible kapton substrates. The sintered TE films fabricated by IPL sintering demonstrated conductivities up to 4000 S/m, which is 5-6 orders of magnitude higher than the unsintered films. Peak power factor of the sintered films was 0.055 mW/mK2 at a temperature of 100 °C. Modeling of the IPL heating reveals that the IPL energy can cause dielectric heating of the nanoparticles to a temperature of 780 K for a fraction of a second. Surface and volume diffusion based sintering models reveal that the heat generated during IPL sintering was sufficient to cause coalescence of TE nanoparticles even under a single pulse conditions. The model predictions are shown to be in good agreement with the experimentally observed sintering behavior. This work opens up an exciting possibility of using photonic sintering to rapidly fabricate thermoelectric generators under ambient conditions.
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Details
- Title
- Ultrafast pulsed light sintering of thermoelectric nanoparticles
- Creators
- Roozbeh Danaei
- Contributors
- Rahul Panat (Degree Supervisor)
- Awarding Institution
- Washington State University
- Academic Unit
- Mechanical and Materials Engineering, School of
- Theses and Dissertations
- Master of Science (MS), Washington State University
- Publisher
- Washington State University; [Pullman, Washington] :
- Identifiers
- 99900525296101842
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Thesis