Application of hot isostatic pressing for consolidation of n-type silicon–germanium alloys prepared by mechanical alloying

Improvements to state-of-the-art Si80Ge20 thermoelectric alloys have been observed in laboratory-scale samples prepared by mechanical alloying (MA) and consolidated by hot pressing. This paper discusses consolidation of large-scale quantities of mechanically alloyed powders into production size compacts. Differences in thermoelectric properties have been observed between compacts prepared by conventional hot uniaxial pressing (HUP) and those prepared by hot isostatic pressing (HIP), due primarily to a difference in carrier concentration between alloys consolidated by the two techniques.