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Thin-film metallic glass: an effective diffusion barrier for Se-doped AgSbTe2 thermoelectric modules
- Source :
- Scientific Reports. 7
- Publication Year :
- 2017
- Publisher :
- Springer Science and Business Media LLC, 2017.
-
Abstract
- The thermal stability of joints in thermoelectric (TE) modules, which are degraded during interdiffusion between the TE material and the contacting metal, needs to be addressed in order to utilize TE technology for competitive, sustainable energy applications. Herein, we deposit a 200 nm-thick Zr-based thin-film metallic glass (TFMG), which acts as an effective diffusion barrier layer with low electrical contact resistivity, on a high-zT Se-doped AgSbTe2 substrate. The reaction couples structured with TFMG/TE are annealed at 673 K for 8–360 hours and analyzed by electron microscopy. No observable IMCs (intermetallic compounds) are formed at the TFMG/TE interface, suggesting the effective inhibition of atomic diffusion that may be attributed to the grain-boundary-free structure of TFMG. The minor amount of Se acts as a tracer species, and a homogeneous Se-rich region is found nearing the TFMG/TE interface, which guarantees satisfactory bonding at the joint. The diffusion of Se, which has the smallest atomic volume of all the elements from the TE substrate, is found to follow Fick’s second law. The calculated diffusivity (D) of Se in TFMG falls in the range of D~10−20–10−23(m2/s), which is 106~107 and 1012~1013 times smaller than those of Ni [10−14–10−17(m2/s)] and Cu [10−8–10−11(m2/s)] in Bi2Te3, respectively.
- Subjects :
- 010302 applied physics
Multidisciplinary
Materials science
Amorphous metal
Diffusion barrier
Diffusion
Intermetallic
02 engineering and technology
Substrate (electronics)
021001 nanoscience & nanotechnology
01 natural sciences
Atomic diffusion
0103 physical sciences
Thermoelectric effect
Thin film
Composite material
0210 nano-technology
Subjects
Details
- ISSN :
- 20452322
- Volume :
- 7
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Scientific Reports
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....4a3b7684fbe6a5c27544805b893a6a29