Thermoelectric conversion material and a process for producing the same
AssigneesNGK Insulators, Ltd., Nissan Motor Co., Ltd.
InventorsYuichiro Imanishi, Makoto Miyoshi, Kazuhiko Shinohara, Masakazu Kobayashi
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Abstract
A thermoelectric conversion material includes a sintered body composed mainly of cobalt and antimony, wherein cobalt and antimony as main components form a compound of cubic CoSb.sub.3, a phase composed mainly of an Sb phase is contained as a secondary phase, and a volumetric rate of the phase closed mainly of the Sb phase is less than 10 vol % with respect to 100 vol % of the thermoelectric conversion material.
Claims3
A thermoelectric conversion material comprising a sintered body comprising (i) a cubic CoSb.sub.3 compound and (ii) a secondary Sb phase, wherein a volumetric ratio of the secondary Sb phase to the entire thermoelectric conversion material is less than 10 vol % and greater than 0 vol %.
A process for producing a thermoelectric conversion material comprising a sintered body comprising (i) a cubic CoSb.sub.3 compound and (ii) a secondary Sb phase, wherein a volumetric ratio of the secondary Sb phase to the entire thermoelectric conversion material is less than 10 vol % and greater than 0 vol %, said process comprising
- press molding a powder comprising cobalt and antimony, and
- thermally treating the thus-molded product in a non-oxidizing atmosphere at a temperature greater than a liquid phase precipitating temperature of Sb, wherein an elementary content ratio of Sb/(Co+additives) is greater than 3 and less than 3.4.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.