Nanostructured multilayered thin film barriers for Mg2Si thermoelectric materials

The Mg2Si-based alloys are promising candidates for thermoelectric energy conversion in the middle-high temperature range in order to replace lead compounds. The main advantages of silicide-based thermoelectrics are the nontoxicity and the abundance of their constituent elements in the earth crust. The drawback of such kind of materials is their oxygen sensitivity at high temperature that entails their use under vacuum or inert atmosphere. In order to limit the corrosion phenomena, nanostructured multilayered molybdenum silicide-based materials were deposited via RF magnetron sputtering onto stainless steel, alumina and silicon (100) to set up the deposition process and then onto Mg2Si pellets. XRD, EDS, FE-SEM and electrical measurements at high temperature were carried out in order to obtain, respectively, the structural, compositional, morphological and electrical characterization of the deposited coatings. At the end, the mechanical behavior of the system thin film/Mg2Si-substrate as a function of temperature and the barrier properties for oxygen protection after thermal treatment in air at high temperature were qualitatively evaluated by FE-SEM.