P-type Bi0.3Sb1.7Te3 polycrystalline pellets were fabricated using different methods: melting and mechanical alloying, followed by hot-press sintering. The effect of starting powder particle size on the thermoelectric properties was investigated in samples prepared using powders of different particle sizes (with micro- and/or nano-scale dimensions). A peak ZT (350 K) of ~1.13 was recorded for hot-pressed samples prepared from mechanical alloyed powder. Moreover, hot-pressed samples prepared from ≤45 μm powder exhibited similar ZT (~1.1). These high ZT values are attributed both to the presence of high-density grain boundaries, which reduced the lattice thermal conductivity, as well as the formation of antisite defects during milling and grinding, which resulted in lower carrier concentrations and higher Seebeck coefficient values. In addition, Bi0.3Sb1.7Te3 bulk nanocomposites were fabricated in an attempt to further reduce the lattice thermal conductivity. Surprisingly, however, the lattice thermal conductivity showed an unexpected increasing trend in nanocomposite samples. This surprising observation can be attributed to a possible overestimation of the lattice thermal conductivity component by using the conventional Wiedemann-Franz law to estimate the electronic thermal conductivity component, which is known to occur in nanocomposite materials with significant grain boundary electrical resistance.
Keywords: ball-milling; bismuth antimony telluride; mechanical alloying; nanocomposite; particle size; thermoelectric materials.