1994 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary
Evaluation of the High-Temperature/High-Efficiency Thermoelectric Device Consisted of Refractory Semiconducting Ceramics
Project/Area Number |
05555169
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Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Developmental Scientific Research (B)
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Allocation Type | Single-year Grants |
Research Field |
Inorganic materials/Physical properties
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Research Institution | Nagoya University |
Principal Investigator |
KOUMOTO Kunihito School of Eng.Nagoya University, Professor, 工学部, 教授 (30133094)
|
Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha) |
KUWABARA Katsumi Reserch Assoc., 工学部, 助手 (40023262)
SUZUKI Yutaka Reserch Assoc., 工学部, 助手 (60023214)
SEO Won-son Reserch Assoc., 工学部, 助手 (30242829)
|
Project Period (FY) |
1993 – 1994
|
Keywords | Silicon Carbide / Boron Carbide / Thermoelectrics / Chemical Vapor Deposition / Porosity / Microstructure / Percolation / Crystal Orientation |
Research Abstract |
Investigations on the high-temperature thermoelectric conversion efficiency of refractory semiconductors, namely porous SiC and boron carbide were carried out and the following results were obtained. First, for porous SiC,microstructures with various porosities and bimodal grain-size distributions were achieved by normal sintering process employing both solid and hollow fine particles of SiC as starting materials. Measurement of thermoelectric properties of the resultant materials has shown that porous SiC of its single-crystalline matrix dispersed with very fine pores would give large figures of merit for thermoelectric conversion. Second, for boron carbide, thick-film ceramics with constant composition yet with different grain sizes and different degrees of crystal axis orientation were fabricated by varying the CVD conditions, and their thermoelectric characteristics were investigated. It was found that fine-grained polycrystals with random crystal-axis orientation should give high energy conversion efficiency.
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