Thermoelectric properties of TiS2 mechanically alloyed compounds

Bulk polycrystalline samples in the series T1-xNbxS2 (0 <= x <= 0.075) were prepared using mechanical alloying synthesis and spark plasma sintering. X-ray diffraction analysis coupled with high resolution transmission electron microscopy indicates the formation of trigonal TiS2 by high energy ball-milling. The as-synthesized particles consist of pseudo-ordered TiS2 domains of around 20-50 nm, joined by bent atomic planes. This bottom-up approach leads, after spark plasma sintering, to homogeneous solid solutions, with a niobium solubility limit of x= 0.075. Microstructural observations evidence the formation of small crystallites in the bulk compounds with a high density of stacking faults. The large grain boundary concentration coupled with the presence of planar defects, leads to a substantial decrease in the thermal conductivity to 1.8 W/mK at 700 K. This enables the figure of merit to reach ZT = 0.3 at 700 K for x= 0.05, despite the lower electron mobility in mechanically alloyed samples due to small crystallite grain size and structural defects. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.