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 - 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 - 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 JF - Journal of Applied Physics 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 - CONF A1 - Bresch, Sophie T1 - Entwicklung oxidkeramischer Werkstoffe und Folien für thermoelektrische Multilayergeneratoren N2 - Calcium cobaltite is a 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. 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. 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 shrinkage. As a higher energy input during powder synthesis leads to a larger grain size and therefore to a reduced sinter activity the shrinkage 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. In addition an increase of power factor by factor 10 can be achieved by applying pressure assisted sintering. T2 - Funktionsmaterialien - Lehrstuhlseminar CY - Bayreuth, Germany DA - 18.11.2016 KW - Thermoelectrics KW - Solid-state-reaction KW - Calcium cobaltite PY - 2016 AN - OPUS4-38375 LA - deu AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Bresch, Sophie T1 - Druckunterstützte Sinterung von Calciumcobaltitfolien N2 - Calcium cobaltite Ca3Co4O9 is a promising p-type oxide thermoelectric material for applications between 600 °C and 900 °C in air. The properties and the morphology of Ca3Co4O9 are strongly anisotropic because of its layered crystal structure. By aligning the plate-like grains, the anisotropic properties can be assigned to the component. Hot-pressing of tablets is a well-known technology for grain alignment of Ca3Co4O9 and increases the thermoelectric properties in a/b-direction remarkably [1-3]. However, hot-pressing of tablets is limited by the tablet size. An interesting alternative for larger components is the pressure assisted sintering of panels from tape casted layers. Tape casting already leads to grain orientation during green body forming. By combining tape casting and pressure assisted sintering (50 kN maximum force) of Ca3Co4O9, high densities and high thermoelectric properties can be reached for large components up to 200 mm edge length. The morphology of Ca3Co4O9-grains can be designed by doping as well as by varying the powder synthesis conditions. For example Bi-doping increases the anisotropy of the grains, and reaction sintering of uncalcined powder leads to a fine grained microstructure and increases the electrical conductivity for pressure-less sintered specimens. Doped and undoped Ca3Co4O9 powders were successfully tape cast with the doctor blade technique. Several layers of tape were stacked and laminated to 7 cm x 7 cm panels. These panels were sintered in a LTCC sintering press with combined in-situ shrinkage measurement. Pressure-less sintered panels from undoped powder have a 2.5 times higher electrical conductivity at room temperature than dry-pressed test bars with randomly orientated particles. By applying a uniaxial pressure of 10 MPa during sintering, the electrical conductivity (σ25°C=15000 S/m) increases by the factor of 6 compared to the pressure-less sintered panels, which is in good accordance to the values reported in literature for conventional hot pressing [1, 3]. It is not possible to assign the increased anisotropy of Ca2.7Bi0.3Co4O9 to the pressure-assisted sintered panels, as Bi leads to an abnormal grain growth (up to 500 µm) with randomly oriented grains. This decreases the electrical conductivity (σ25°C=5000 S/m). Such an abnormal grain-growth is reported for Bi over-doped Ca3Co4O9 [4] but not because of hot-pressing. N2 - Calciumcobaltit ist eines der vielversprechendsten thermoelektrischen Oxide, welche zur direkten Wärmerückgewinnung genutzt werden können. Calciumcobaltit weist sowohl eine anisotrope Partikelform als auch anisotrope thermoelektrische Eigenschaften auf. Durch gezielte Ausrichtung der Partikel mittels Foliengießens und druckunterstützter Sinterung kann diese Anisotropie gezielt auf ein Bauteil übertragen werden. Die Partikelmorphologie kann durch Dotierung und Kalzinierung beeinflusst werden. Verschiedene Calciumcobaltitpulver wurden druckgesintert und das Gefüge sowie die thermoelektrischen Eigenschaften untersucht. Die Dotierung mit Bismut führte zu einer Verschlechterung der elektrischen Leitfähigkeit bei druckgesinterten Proben im Gegensatz zu undotierten Pulvern. T2 - Funktionsmaterialien - Lehrstuhlseminar CY - Bayreuth, Germany DA - 02.06.2017 KW - Thermoelectrics KW - Calcium cobaltite KW - Pressure assisted sintering KW - Druckunterstützte Sinterung KW - Calciumcobaltit KW - Thermoelektrika PY - 2017 AN - OPUS4-40467 LA - deu AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER -