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pp.98-103
Mg3-xZnxSb2 powders with x = 0-1.2 were fabricated by mechanical alloying in a planetary ball mill with a speed of 350 rpm for 24 hrs and then hot pressed under a pressure of 70 MPa at 773 K for 2 hrs. It was found that there were systematic shifts in the X-ray diffraction peaks of Mg3Sb2 (x = 0) toward a higher angle with increasing Zn for both the powder and the bulk sample and finally the phase of Mg1.86Zn1.14Sb2 was formed at the Zn content of x = 1.2. The Mg3-xZnxSb2 compounds had nano-sized grains of 21-30 nm for the powder and 28-66 nm for the hot pressed specimens. The electrical conductivity of hot pressed Mg3-xZnxSb2 increased with increasing Zn content and temperature from 33 Sm-1 for x = 0 to 13,026 Sm-1 for x = 1.2 at 323 K. The samples for all the compositions from x = 0 to x = 1.2 had positive Seebeck coefficients, which decreased with increasing Zn content and temperature, which resulted from the increased charge carrier concentration. Most of the samples had relatively low thermal conductivities comparable to the high performance thermoelectric materials. The dimensionless figure of merit of Mg3-xZnxSb2 was directly proportional to the Zn content except for the compound with Zn = 1.2 at high temperature. The Mg3-xZnxSb2 compound with Zn = 0.8 had the largest value of ZT, 0.33 at 723 K.
