Polycrystalline magnesium silicide and use thereof
AssigneeTokyo University of Science Foundation
InventorsTsutomu Iida, Syunsuke Kondo, Mitsunobu Nakatani
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Abstract
Polycrystalline magnesium silicide containing only carbon as a dopant and having carbon distributed at the crystal grain boundaries and within the crystal grains, a thermoelectric conversion material obtained using the polycrystalline magnesium silicide, a sintered compact, a thermoelectric conversion element, and a thermoelectric conversion module, and methods for producing polycrystalline magnesium silicide and a sintered compact.
Claims18
Polycrystalline magnesium silicide comprising an isoelectronic impurity of silicon as a dopant, wherein the isoelectronic impurity consists of carbon atoms, wherein the carbon atoms are distributed within crystal grains and at crystal grain boundaries of the polycrystalline magnesium silicide, and wherein the carbon atoms that replace a portion of the silicon atoms within the crystal grains of the polycrystalline magnesium silicide function as the dopant.
A method for producing polycrystalline magnesium silicide, the method comprising heating and melting a starting material composition containing magnesium, silicon, and a carbon source in a reducing atmosphere at a temperature of 1085° C. or higher and lower than 1410° C. to produce a melted and solidified material,
- wherein during the heating and melting, carbon generated by thermal decomposition of the carbon source is distributed within crystal grains and at crystal grain boundaries of the polycrystalline magnesium silicide.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.