Ball milling as an effective route for the preparation of doped bornite: synthesis, stability and thermoelectric properties

Guélou, G., Powell, A. V. and Vaqueiro, P. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7545-6262 (2015) Ball milling as an effective route for the preparation of doped bornite: synthesis, stability and thermoelectric properties. Journal of Materials Chemistry C, 3 (40). pp. 10624-10629. ISSN 2050-7526 doi: 10.1039/C5TC01704A

Abstract/Summary

Bornite, Cu5FeS4, is a naturally-occuring mineral with an ultralow thermal conductivity and potential for thermoelectric power generation. We describe here a new, easy and scalable route to synthesise bornite, together with the thermoelectric behaviour of manganese-substituted derivatives, Cu5Fe1-xMnxS4 (0 ≤ x ≤ 0.10). The electrical and thermal transport properties of Cu5Fe1-xMnxS4 (0 ≤ x ≤ 0.10), which are p-type semiconductors, were measured from room temperature to 573 K. The stability of bornite was investigated by thermogravimetric analysis under inert and oxidising atmospheres. Repeated measurements of the electrical transport properties confirm that bornite is stable up to 580 K under an inert atmosphere, while heating to 890 K results in rapid degradation. Ball milling leads to a substantial improvement in the thermoelectric figure of merit of unsusbtituted bornite (ZT = 0.55 at 543 K), when compared to bornite prepared by conventional high-temperature synthesis (ZT < 0.3 at 543 K). Manganese-substituted samples have a ZT comparable to that of unsubstituted bornite.

Item Type	Article
URI	https://reading-clone.eprints-hosting.org/id/eprint/42437
Identification Number/DOI	10.1039/C5TC01704A
Refereed	Yes
Divisions	Interdisciplinary centres and themes > Chemical Analysis Facility (CAF) Life Sciences > School of Chemistry, Food and Pharmacy > Department of Chemistry Interdisciplinary centres and themes > Energy Research
Publisher	Royal Society of Chemistry
Download/View statistics	View download statistics for this item