Thermoelectric properties of nanostructured FeSi2 prepared by field-activated and pressure-assisted reactive sintering

Field-activated pressure-assisted process was applied to fabricate “pure” and doped iron disilicide (FeSi2, FeSi2Ge0.01, and FeSi2Cu0.1) by reactive sintering from elemental powders. The products has an average grain size of about 0.3 μm. Significantly lower thermal conductivity measured on these materials provides a figure of merit, ZT of 28.50 × 10−4 in the temperature range of 330–450 K, a value that represents a 17.1–47.2% increase over that published on materials prepared by other methods.