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Bi2Te3 filaments via extrusion and pressureless sintering of Bi2Te3-based inks

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Abstract

Inks containing sub-20 µm particles of doped bismuth telluride (n-type Bi2Te2.73Se0.3 or p-type (Bi0.5Sb1.5)Te3) are extruded into 330 µm diameter filaments. When solid-state sintered up to 857 K under no pressure, the filaments only partially densify, with over 20% porosity remaining. Coating the filament with TeO2 powder, followed by hydrogen reduction to liquid Te, enables liquid phase sintering at 710 K, with rapid densification to less than 5% porosity within 1 h. Coating with a stoichiometric blend of Bi2O3 + 3TeO2 powders, followed by hydrogen reduction to liquid Bi and Te, provides transient liquid phase sintering at 808 K and subsequent reaction to Bi2Te3, resulting in fast filament densification, to less than 5% porosity within 10 min without residual Te.

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Data availability

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

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Acknowledgments

CK received funding from the Swiss National Science Foundation under grant No. 172180. NRG was supported by a NASA Space Technology Research Fellowship (NSTRF17). Filament fabrication was funded by DARPA SEED HR00111710005. The authors gratefully acknowledge Profs. R.N. Shah and J.G. Snyder for useful discussions. This work made use of NUANCE, IMSERC, and MatCI, which have received support from the SHyNE Resource (NSF ECCS-1542205) and the MRSEC program (NSF DMR-1720139).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, USA

    Christoph Kenel, Nicholas R. Geisendorfer, Jun Peng & David C. Dunand

  2. Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Northwestern University, 2220 Campus Drive, Evanston, IL, 60208, USA

    Jun Peng & Matthew A. Grayson

Authors
  1. Christoph Kenel
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  2. Nicholas R. Geisendorfer
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  5. David C. Dunand
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Correspondence to David C. Dunand.

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Conflict of interest

DCD discloses a financial interest in Metalprinting, Inc. (South Korea) which is active in ink-based materials printing.

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Kenel, C., Geisendorfer, N.R., Peng, J. et al. Bi2Te3 filaments via extrusion and pressureless sintering of Bi2Te3-based inks. MRS Communications 11, 818–824 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1557/s43579-021-00098-w

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