Preparation and Thermoelectric Performance of BaTiO3/Bi0.5Sb1.5Te3 Composite Materials
A series of xBaTiO3/Bi0.5Sb1.5Te3 (xBTO/BST) nanocomposite thermoelectric materials were prepared by the method of ultrasonic dispersion combined spark plasma sintering. The thermoelectric performance was systematically investigated in the temperature range from 300 K to 500 K. Combined with the analysis of phase composition and microstructure, the results indicated that the BTO nanoparticles were uniformly dispersed in the grain boundaries of the BST matrix, which can optimize carrier concentration and produce an energy filtering effect to a certain extent to improve the Seebeck coefficient, and also reduced the thermal conductivity. The highest ZT value of the sample with x = 0.2% was achieved 1.2 at 340 K, which was 20% larger than that of the matrix. This work is helpful for exploring new composite systems to improve the thermoelectric performance of composites.