Thermoelectric Ca0.9Yb0.1MnO3−δ grain growth controlled by spark plasma sintering

n-Type Ca0.9Yb0.1MnO3−δ thermoelectric (TE) powders were prepared by solid state synthesis (SSS) and co-precipitation method (Cop). The bulk TE materials were consolidated using conventional sintering (CS) and spark plasma sintering (SPS) respectively. The shrinkage behavior, as well as the sample densification strongly depends on the starting particle size. Consequently, the bulk samples from normal powder (SSS) and nano-powder (Cop) were prepared with similar density by using different sintering temperatures, of 1400 °C and 1200 °C, then 1200 and 950 °C for CS and SPS respectively. Such a decrease (up to 200 °C) of the sintering temperature is a consequent progress in terms of engineering for applications. Another advantage of the co-precipitation process compared to the conventional solid state synthesis is that, due to the small particle sizes and the decreased sintering temperature, grain growth was limited and TE properties were enhanced. The interest of the SPS process was also evidenced and we are presenting here the structural and microstructural investigations. In addition, the thermoelectric properties of samples prepared with two different processes were studied with the figure of merit of 0.18 at 750 °C.