TY - CONF A1 - Bresch, Sophie A1 - Stargardt, Patrick A1 - Mieller, Björn A1 - Moos, Ralf A1 - Rabe, Torsten T1 - Material development for oxide multilayer generators N2 - Thermoelectric generators can be used for energy harvesting by directly transforming a temperature gradient into a voltage. Multilayer generators based on low-temperature co-fired ceramics technology (LTCC) are an interesting alternative to conventional π-type generators. They exhibit several advantages like high filling factor, possibility of texturing, co-firing of all materials in one single-step, and reduction of production costs due to the high possible degree of automation. Pressure-assisted sintering enables the theoretical possibility of co-firing two promising oxide thermoelectric materials: Ca3Co4O9 (p-type) and CaMnO3 (n-type). Due to the large difference in sintering temperature (300 K) the process is very challenging. In this work we show the material development of Ca3Co4O9, CaMnO3, insulation and metallization for multilayer generators co-fired under pressure at 900 °C. The materials are tailored regarding their sintering behavior, electrical performance and coefficients of thermal expansion. Different generator designs (unileg and pn-type) were fabricated and analyzed regarding crack formation, interaction layers and thermoelectric performance. Simulated stresses during cooling in the multilayers are compared with actual crack formation for different sintering conditions. This study shows that a lower pressure level and a lower level of complexity are beneficial for co-firing and performance. T2 - 45th International Conference and Expo on Advanced Ceramics and Composites (ICACC 2021 Virtual) CY - Online meeting DA - 08.02.2021 KW - Thermoelectrics KW - Multilayer PY - 2021 AN - OPUS4-52462 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Bresch, Sophie A1 - Mieller, Björn A1 - Moos, Ralf A1 - Rabe, Torsten T1 - Improved thermoelectric properties of CaMnO3 and Ca3Co4O9 by increasing the driving force for sintering N2 - Thermoelectric materials can convert waste heat directly into electrical power by utilizing the Seebeck effect. Calcium cobaltite (Ca3Co4O9, p-type) and calcium manganate (CaMnO3, n-type) are two of the most promising oxide thermoelectric materials. The performance of these materials is evaluated by the power factor PF = S²∙σ and the figure of merit ZT = (PF ∙ T) / κ, demanding high Seebeck coefficient S, high electrical conductivity σ and low thermal conductivity κ. The latter two are increasing with increasing relative sinter density. According to theory, the relative density of ceramics can be improved by increasing the driving force for sintering. This study investigates different approaches to increase the driving force for sintering of Ca3Co4O9 and CaMnO3 to improve densities and thermoelectric properties. The following approaches were applied: minimizing the energy input during powder synthesis by calcination, fine milling of the powder, using reaction-sintering without a powder synthesis step, and adding a transient liquid phase by sinter additives. All different approaches led to an increased densification and thus higher electrical conductivity and higher PF. Thermal conductivity increased as well but not to the same extent. E.g. reaction-sintering increased the densification of Ca3Co4O9 (p-type) and CaMnO3 (n-type). Consequently, the electrical conductivities improved by about 100 % for both oxides leading to superior power factors (PF = 230 µW/mK² for CaMnO3). Although the thermal conductivity increased as well by 8 %, the figures of merit (ZT) were significantly higher compared to conventionally sintered bars. The addition of 4 wt% CuO as a sinter additive to CaMnO3 lowers the sinter temperature from above 1250 °C to below 1100 °C and increases the relative density. Due to the increased density, both electrical conductivity and PF increased by more than 200 % even though the sintering temperature was 150 K lower. T2 - Electroceramics XVII CY - Online meeting DA - 24.08.2020 KW - Thermoelectrics KW - Reaction sintering KW - Sintering additives PY - 2020 AN - OPUS4-51163 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Bresch, Sophie A1 - Höhne, Patrick A1 - Lindemann, Franziska A1 - Koppert, Ralf A1 - Mieller, Björn T1 - Chemical resistance of commercial LTCC against thin film etching media N2 - Low-temperature co-fired ceramics (LTCC) are used to fabricate robust multilayer circuits. Typically, thick-film technology is applied for metallization. For specific sensor applications, thin films are deposited directly on the as-fired LTCC-surface. These deposited thin films are structured either by lift-off or by etching. The latter is less error-prone and thus preferred in industry provided the selected materials allow it. 200 nm Ni-thin films were deposited on three different commercial constrained-sintered LTCC (CT708, CT800 and DP951) by electron beam physical vapour deposition. The thin-films were structured by covering corresponding sections with a UV-curable photo resisn and subsequent etching of the uncovered surface, leaving behind the desired structure. The etched Ni-thin film showed high difference in failure rate and sheet resistance regarding the used LTCC-material. DP951 had the lowest sheet resistance and no failure, whereas the CT800 had a failure rate of 40 %. The LTCC with high failure rate showed a strong chemical attack by the used etching medium. To address this phenomenon, the chemical resistance of the three different commercial LTCC (CT708, CT800 and DP951) against four different commonly used etching media (sulphuric acid, phosphoric acid, aqua regia, and hydrofluoric acid) is investigated. The dissolved ions are analyzed by ICP-OES to correlate the LTCC-composition and its chemical resistance. T2 - KERAMIK 2023 / 98. DKG-Jahrestagung CY - Jena, Germany DA - 27.03.2023 KW - Glass-ceramics KW - Hydrogen sensors KW - Acids PY - 2023 AN - OPUS4-57273 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Bresch, Sophie A1 - Mieller, Björn A1 - Reimann, T. A1 - Moos, R. A1 - Rabe, Torsten T1 - Texturing of calcium cobaltite for thermoelectric applications by pressure assisted sintering N2 - Thermoelectric materials can convert waste heat directly into electrical power by using the Seebeck effect. Calcium cobaltite (CCO) is considered as a promising thermoelectric p-type oxide for energy harvesting applications at temperatures above 500 °C. The properties and morphology of single-crystal CCO are strongly anisotropic because of its crystal structure of alternating layers of CoO2 and Ca2CoO3. By aligning the plate-like grains, the anisotropic properties of the grains can be assigned to the poly-crystalline parts. In this study, the combination of tape casting and pressure-assisted sintering is used to texture and densify large scale components (50 cm²). Thereby, the influence of powder preparation and applied pressure during sintering on texturing and thermoelectric properties is investigated. The analysis of XRD pole figures revealed that tape casting already leads to highly textured CCO. By pressure variation during sintering, the microstructure of CCO can be tailored either toward maximum power factor as required for energy harvesting or toward maximum figure of merit as required for energy recovery. Low pressure lead to a porous microstructure and maximum figure of merit and higher pressure to full densification and maximum power factor. The electrical and thermal conductivity of CCO seem depending on both texture and sinter density. T2 - KERAMIK 2021 / CERAMICS 2021 CY - Online meeting DA - 19.04.2021 KW - Thermoelectrics KW - Hot pressing KW - Pole figures PY - 2021 AN - OPUS4-52490 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Bresch, Sophie A1 - Mieller, Björn A1 - Moos, Ralf A1 - Rabe, Torsten T1 - Reaction sintering and sintering additives for cost-effective production of thermoelectric oxides N2 - Thermoelectric oxides attract much interest recently. Although their thermoelectric properties are inferior to non-oxides, they exhibit distinct advantages. Thermoelectric oxides are stable in air at higher temperatures, their raw materials are less toxic, and more abundant. To enhance attractivity of these materials for industrial applications, production costs need to be reduced. Conventionally, the legs of thermoelectric generators are sintered from green bodies of previously synthesized powder. Reaction-sintering is a fabrication method without a powder synthesis step, as the final phase is formed during the sintering from a raw material mixture. Moreover, the reduction of chemical potential during reaction-sintering is effective as an additional driving force for sintering. We show that reaction-sintering increases the densification of CaMnO3 (n-type, Sm doped). Consequently, the electrical conductivities improved by about 100 % leading to superior power factors (PF = 230 µW/mK² for CaMnO3). Another approach to reduce the production costs is to lower the sintering temperature by adding sinter additives. The addition of 4 wt% CuO to CaMnO3 lowers the sinter temperature from 1250 °C to 1050 °C. The achieved power factor PF = 264 µW/mK is more than two times higher as reported in literature for the same dopant. T2 - Virtual Conference on Thermoelectrics (VCT) CY - Online meeting DA - 21.07.2020 KW - Thermoelectrics KW - Reaction sintering KW - Sintering additives KW - Calcium manganate KW - Calcium cobaltite PY - 2020 AN - OPUS4-51070 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Bresch, Sophie A1 - Mieller, Björn A1 - Schönauer-Kamin, D. A1 - Moos, R. A1 - Giovanelli, F. A1 - Rabe, Torsten T1 - Influence of pressure assisted sintering and reaction sintering on microstructure and thermoelectric properties of bi-doped and undoped calcium cobaltite N2 - Calcium cobaltite (Ca3Co4O9) is considered as one of the most promising thermoelectric p-type oxides for energy harvesting applications at temperatures above 500 °C. It is challenging to sinter this material as its stability is limited to 920 °C. To facilitate a practicable and scalable production of Ca3Co4O9 for multilayer generators, a systematic study of the influence of powder calcination, Bi-doping, reaction sintering, and pressure-assisted sintering (PAS) on microstructure and thermoelectric properties is presented. Batches of doped, undoped, calcined, and not calcined powders were prepared, tape-cast, and sintered with and without uniaxial pressure at 900 °C. The resulting phase compositions, microstructures and thermoelectric properties were analysed. It is shown that the beneficial effect of Bi-doping observed on pressureless sintered samples cannot be transferred to PAS. Liquid phase formation induces distortions and abnormal grain growth. Although the Seebeck coefficient is increased to 139 µV/K by Bi-doping, the power factor is low due to poor electrical conductivity. The best results were achieved by PAS of calcined powder. The dense and textured microstructure exhibits a high power factor of 326 µW/mK² at 800 °C but adversely high thermal conductivity in the relevant direction. The figure of merit is higher than 0.08 at 700 °C. KW - Ceramics KW - Calcium cobaltite KW - Thermoelectric properties KW - Calcination KW - Pressure-assisted sintering PY - 2019 DO - https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5107476 SN - 0021-8979 VL - 126 IS - 7 SP - 075102-1 EP - 075102-11 PB - AIP Publishing CY - Melville AN - OPUS4-48708 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Bresch, Sophie A1 - Mieller, Björn A1 - Delorme, F. A1 - Chen, C. A1 - Bektas, M. A1 - Moos, R. A1 - Rabe, Torsten T1 - Influence of Reaction-Sintering and Calcination Conditions on Thermoelectric Properties of Sm-doped Calcium Manganate CaMnO3 N2 - A wide range of solid-state synthesis routes for calcium manganate is reported in the literature, but there is no systematic study about the influence of the solid-state synthesis conditions on thermoelectric properties. Therefore, this study examined the influence of calcination temperature and calcination cycles on the Seebeck coefficient, electrical conductivity, and thermal conductivity. Higher calcination temperatures and repeated calcination cycles minimized the driving force for sintering of the synthesized powder, leading to smaller shrinkage and lower densities of the sintered specimens. As the electrical conductivity increased monotonously with increasing density, a higher energy input during calcination caused deterioration of electrical conductivity. Phase composition and Seebeck coefficient of sintered calcium manganate were not influenced by the calcination procedure. The highest thermoelectric properties with the highest power factors and figures of merit were obtained by means of reaction-sintering of uncalcined powder. KW - Thermoelectric oxides KW - Calcination KW - Solid-state-synthesis KW - Power factor KW - Reaction-sintering PY - 2018 DO - https://doi.org/10.4416/JCST2018-00017 SN - 2190-9385 VL - 9 IS - 3 SP - 289 EP - 300 PB - Göller Verlag AN - OPUS4-46224 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Bresch, Sophie A1 - Mieller, Björn A1 - Rabe, Torsten T1 - Optimization of Solid-State-Reactions of Calcium Cobaltite Ca3Co4O9 N2 - Calcium cobaltite is a promising p-type oxide thermoelectric material for high temperature applications due to its high figure of merit between 600 °C and 900 °C in air. The solid-state-reaction is well known for large scale powder synthesis of functional materials. As a high temperature process, the powder synthesis consumes a lot of energy. In different studies, different synthesis conditions were used for the preparation of calcium cobaltite powder. This study showed that a higher energy input (elevated temperatures, longer dwell times, or repeated calcinations) during powder synthesis does not increase but decrease the Seebeck coefficient and the electrical conductivity. The same correlation was determined for the densification. As a higher energy input leads to a larger grain size and therefore to a reduced sinter activity, it can be concluded that the thermoelectric properties are correlated with the sinter activity of the powder. These results can be used to minimize the energy demand for the powder synthesis of Ca₃Co₄ O₉. T2 - 14th European Conference on Thermoelectrics CY - Lisbon, Portugal DA - 20.09.2016 KW - Thermoelectrics KW - Solid-State-Reaction KW - Calcium cobaltite PY - 2016 AN - OPUS4-37543 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Bresch, Sophie A1 - Mieller, Björn A1 - Rabe, Torsten T1 - Influence of solid-state-synthesis conditions on properties of oxide thermoelectric materials N2 - Calcium cobaltite and calcium manganate are promising oxide thermoelectric materials for applications between 600 °C and 900 °C in air to convert waste heat directly into electrical power. The solid state reaction, well known for large scale powder synthesis of functional materials, is used for the production of thermoelectric oxides. As a high temperature process, the powder synthesis consumes a lot of energy. In different studies, different synthesis conditions were used for the preparation of calcium cobaltite and calcium manganate powder. To the author’s knowledge, a systematic study of the synthesis conditions of calcium cobaltite and calcium manganate has not yet been published. Therefore, the synthesis conditions for calcium cobaltite (temperature, dwell time, and particle size of raw materials) were studied with a statistical design of experiments (2³) and investigated regarding phase composition (XRD), densification and thermoelectric properties. The gained knowledge was used to optimize the solid state reaction of calcium manganate. This study showed that a higher energy input (elevated temperatures, longer dwell times, or repeated calcinations) during powder synthesis does not improve but deteriorate the thermoelectric properties of calcium cobaltite. The same correlation was determined for the densification. As a higher energy input during powder synthesis leads to a larger grain size and therefore to a reduced sinter activity the densification at a given sinter profile is minimize as well as the thermoelectric properties. These results can be used to minimize the energy demand for the powder synthesis of oxide thermoelectric materials. T2 - 92. DKG Jahrestagung & Symposium Hochleistungskeramik 2017 CY - Berlin, Germany DA - 19.03.2017 KW - Thermoelectrics KW - Solid-state-reaction KW - Calcium cobaltite KW - Calcium maganate PY - 2017 AN - OPUS4-39520 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Paulus, Daniel A1 - Bresch, Sophie A1 - Moos, Ralf A1 - Schönauer-Kamin, Daniela T1 - Powder aerosol deposited calcium cobaltite as textured P-type thermoelectric material with power factors approaching single crystal values N2 - In this work, the thermoelectric material calcium cobaltite Ca3Co4O9 (CCO), a promising p-type conducting thermoelectric oxide with anisotropic properties, was processed by the powder aerosol deposition method (PAD) to form a dense ceramic CCO film with a thickness in the µm range. The prepared films were characterized regarding their microstructure and thermoelectric properties between room temperature and 900 °C. After heat treatment at 900 °C, the CCO PAD film in-plane shows excellent properties in terms of electrical conductivity (280 S/cm at 900 °C) and Seebeck coefficient (220 µV/K at 900 °C). The calculated power factor in-plane (ab) reaches with 1125 µW/(m K2) 40 % of the single crystal value, surpassing the known-properties of CCO bulk ceramics. Examination of the microstructure shows a strong fiber texture of the film as well as a strong coarsening of the grains during the first heat treatment up to 900 °C. KW - thermoelectrics KW - calcium cobaltite KW - thermoelectric oxide KW - aerosol deposition method (ADM) PY - 2024 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-606246 DO - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jeurceramsoc.2024.116717 VL - 44 IS - 15 SP - 1 EP - 8 PB - Elsevier BV AN - OPUS4-60624 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER -