Experimental and thermodynamic considerations of Mg2Si coatings deposited by pack cementation process

Magnesium disilicide is a narrow gap semiconductor which can be used in several applications such as thermoelectric materials, optoelectronic devices and batteries. It has attracted special attraction because of its low cost and non-toxicity. In the herein examination the formation of this compound is investigated by a simple, one-stage process which is pack cementation. Particularly, the effect of deposition time, activator and donor material concentration was examined. Mg2Si was formed in every case without the presence of other compounds as referred to be present when formed with other coating procedures which have higher cost and are very sophisticated. The examined parameters were found to have effect only on the coating thickness up to a certain value. Moreover, the experimental results confirmed the theoretical thermodynamic calculations performed for this case.