Microstructures and liquidus projection of the ternary Ag-Sb-Te system
Journal
Journal of Alloys and Compounds
Journal Volume
509
Journal Issue
3
Start Page
656
End Page
668
ISSN
09258388
Date Issued
2011
Author(s)
Chen, Sinn-Wen
Abstract
Ag-Sb-Te alloys are important for thermoelectric applications. Fifty-one Ag-Sb-Te ternary alloys were prepared, and their primary solidification phases were analyzed. The liquidus troughs of the liquidus projection of the ternary Ag-Sb-Te system are determined based on the experimental results and the phase diagrams of the three binary constituent systems. There are 13 primary solidification phase regions. In addition to the three terminal solid solution phases and nine binary compounds, there is one ternary compound, AgSbTe 2. A unique microstructure with bright spherical phases uniformly dispersed in a matrix caused by a miscibility gap in the liquid phase is found in the γ-Ag2Te primary solidification phase regime. A very fine microstructure with nanometer size Ag2Te is also observed, resulting from the class I reaction, liquid = δ + Ag2Te + AgSbTe 2, at 496.5 °C, and the liquid composition of Ag-40.0 at%Sb-36.0 at%Te. © 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Subjects
Microstructure
Solidification
Thermoelectric materials
Type
journal article