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Volume 5, Issue 5 Res. Rev. J Mat. Sci. 2017
ISSN: 2321-6212 Advanced Materials 2017
September 07-08, 2017
September 07-08, 2017 | Edinburgh, Scotland
Advanced materials & Processing
11th International Conference on
Thermoelectric oxides processed by a laser floating zone technique
N.M. Ferreira1, S. Rasekh2, A.V Kovalevsky 3, F.M. Costa4, M.A. Madre5, J.C. Diez6 and A. Sotelo7
1,2,3,4Universidade de Aveiro, Portugal
5,6,7CSIC-Universidad de Zaragoza, Spain
Oxide ceramics are very promising materials for new thermoelectric devices, as they exhibit high Seebeck coefficient and could
present relatively low electrical resistivity, as well as high chemical stability at high temperatures. They show anisotropic
thermoelectric properties linked to their layered structures. Therefore, texturing methods developing oriented grains, such as grain
growth processes have already shown their applicability to this kind and similar compounds. Among these methods, the laser floating
zone (LFZ) melting technique has been found to be very promising to tune up the performances of these compounds, especially in
the Co-oxide based materials studied in the last years in our laboratories. In this work, some examples highlighting the versatility and
usefulness of LFZ technique and the improvements on the thermoelectric performances of textured materials will be shown. This
technique allows obtaining very dense, and well textured thermoelectric composite materials. In spite of the well-known incongruent
solidification of this family of materials, the as-grown samples possess high thermoelectric properties which can be further enhanced
by an adequate annealing procedure, leading to nearly single phase materials. These microstructural modifications produce an
important improvement of power factor when compared with materials prepared through conventional techniques. Moreover, this
processing technique also shows good prospects to be applied in modules construction.
Biography
Nuno Ferreira a PhD (2014) in Physics Engineering, nowadays, a pos-doc researcher at i3N, Physics Department and CICECO – Materials science and Ceramics
Department at Aveiro University – Portugal. Had participated as collaborator and fellowship in several R&D projects on material science. Experience on study
and development of ceramic based materials prepared through conventional methods (melting, solid stated) and focus in laser processing (crystal growth – LFZ
and surface sintering). Present sample characterization skills on different techniques such as, electrical conductivity and magnetic properties of various oxide
materials. Current focus materials: thermoelectrics, ferroelectrics and glass matrices doped with transition metals and rare earth for energy storage and conversion
applications. Main expertise is related to magnetic and electrical properties of materials and laser processing.
N.M. Ferreira et al., Res. Rev. J Mat. Sci. 2017, 5:5
DOI: 10.4172/2321-6212-C1-005