Fabrication and thermoelectric properties of fine-grained TiNiSn compounds

Nearly single-phased TiNiSn half-Heusler compound thermoelectric materials were synthesized by combining mechanical alloying (MA) and spark plasma sintering (SPS) in order to reduce its thermal conductivity by refining the grain sizes. Although TiNiSn compound powders were not synthesized directly via MA, dense bulk samples of TiNiSn compound were obtained by the subsequent SPS treatment. It was found that an excessive Ti addition relative to the TiNiSn stoichiometry is effective in increasing the phase purity of TiNiSn half-Heusler phase in the bulk samples, by compensating for the Ti loss caused by the oxidation of Ti powders and MA processing. The maximum power factor value obtained in the Ti-compensated sample is 1720 μW m−1 K−2 at 685 K. A relatively high ZT value of 0.32 is achieved at 785 K for the present undoped TiNiSn compound polycrystals.