Back to results
US 7,067,733 B2Granted
Thermoelectric material having crystal grains well oriented in certain direction and process for producing the same
AssigneeYamaha Corporation
InventorsYuma Horio, Junya Suzuki
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Thermoelectric material is produced through a process sequence including a liquid quenching, a primary solidification such as a hot pressing or extrusion and an upset forging; although the C-planes of the crystal grains are directed in parallel to the direction in which the force is exerted on flakes during the hot pressing/extrusion, the a-axes are randomly directed; the a-axes are oriented in a predetermined direction through the upset forging; this results in improvement of electric resistivity without reduction in the figure of merit.
Claims12
A process for producing thermoelectric material, comprising the steps of:
- a) preparing a liquid raw material for said thermoelectric material;
- b) quenching said liquid raw material for producing flakes containing crystal grains;
- c) orienting C-planes of said crystal grains of a crystal structure in a hexagonal system in parallel to a certain direction through a primary solidification to obtain a solid body, wherein said primary solidification is carried out by exerting a first force on said flakes in a first-force-exerting direction parallel to said certain direction;
- d) after step c), orienting a-axes on said C-planes in parallel to a target direction perpendicular to said certain direction for producing said thermoelectric material by exerting a second force on said solid body in a second force-exerting direction perpendicular to said first force-exerting direction;
- and
- e) forming electrodes on a piece of said thermoelectric material in such a manner that said electrodes are spaced from one another in said target direction.
3 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.