Synthesis and Characterization of Bi-doped Mg2Si Thermoelectric Materials

The Mg2Si-based alloys are promising candidates for thermoelectric energy conversion for the middle-high range of temperature. They are very attractive as they could replace lead-based compounds due to their low cost, non-toxicity [1, 2] and low density. They could also result in thermoelectric generator weight reduction (a key-feature for the automotive application field [3, 4]). The high value of thermal conductivity of the silicide-based materials could be reduced by increasing the phonon scattering in the presence of nanosized crystalline grains. This does not heavily interfere with the electrical conductivity of the thermoelectric material [5-6].