Higher manganese silicides (HMS), represented by MnSix (x = 1.71-1.75), are promising p-type candidates for thermoelectric (TE) energy harvesting systems at intermediate temperature range. The materials are very attractive as they may replace lead based compounds due to their non-toxicity, low cost of starting materials, and high thermal and chemical stability. Dense pellets were obtained through fast reactive sintering by spark plasma sintering (SPS). The addition -or nanoinclusion, of Al and Mg permitted the figure of merit enhancement of the material obtained with this technique, reaching the highest value of 0.40 at 600°C. Morphology, composition and crystal structure of the samples were characterized by electron microscopies, energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, and X-ray diffraction analyses, respectively.
QC 20170208