Synthesis of nanocrystalline Bi2Te3 via mechanical alloying

Bi40Te60 thermoelectric compound was fabricated via mechanical milling of bismuth and tellurium as starting materials. Effect of the milling time and heat treatment temperatures were investigated. In order to characterize the ball milled powders, the X-ray diffraction (XRD) was used. Thermal behavior of the mechanically alloyed powders was studied by differential thermal analysis (DTA). The morphological evolutions were studied by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Results showed that the nanocrystalline Bi2Te3 compound was formed after 5 h of milling. Further milling (25 h) and heating to 500 °C showed that the synthesized phase was stable during these conditions. Nanocrystalline Bi2Te3 with 9–10 nm mean grain size and flaky morphology (lamellar structure) was obtained at the end of milling.