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 - JOUR A1 - Mieller, Björn T1 - Influence of test procedure on dielectric breakdown strength of alumina JF - Journal of Advanced Ceramics N2 - Dielectric strength testing of ceramics can be performed with various setups and parameters. Comparisons of results from different sources are often not meaningful, because the results are strongly dependent on the actual testing procedure. The aim of this study is to quantify the influence of voltage ramp rate, electrode size, electrode conditioning, and sample thickness on the measured AC dielectric strength of a commercial alumina. Mean values, Weibull moduli, and failure probabilities determined in standardized short time tests are evaluated and related to withstand voltage tests. Dielectric strength values in the range from 21.6 to 33.2 kV/mm were obtained for the same material using different testing procedures. Short time tests resulted in small standard deviations (< 2 kV/mm) and high Weibull moduli around 30, while withstand tests at voltage levels with low and virtual zero failure probability in short time tests resulted in large scatter of withstand time and Weibull moduli < 1. The strong decrease in Weibull moduli is attributed to progressive damage from partial discharge and depolarization during AC testing. These findings emphasize the necessity of a thorough documentation of testing procedure and highlight the importance of withstand voltage tests for a comprehensive material characterization. KW - Ceramic KW - High-voltage testing KW - Dielectric breakdown KW - Alumina PY - 2019 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-483852 DO - https://doi.org/10.1007/s40145-018-0310-4 SN - 2226-4108 SN - 2227-8508 VL - 8 IS - 2 SP - 247 EP - 255 PB - Springer AN - OPUS4-48385 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER -