Mechanical and thermoelectric properties of environment friendly higher manganese silicide fabricated using water atomization and spark plasma sintering

Here, we report on an economical, viable, one-step method for fabrication of Higher Manganese Silicide MnSi1.75 (HMS). Fabrication of the HMS was followed by spark plasma sintering (SPS) at different temperatures (850, 900, 950 and 1000 °C), after which the thermoelectric and mechanical properties were investigated. It was found that the electrical conductivity significantly increased with increasing SPS temperature. This was attributed to the simultaneous increase of carrier concentration and mobility, while a reduction in the Seebeck coefficient was attributed to the formation of secondary phase in the HMS samples. A low thermal conductivity of 1.86 W/mK at 723 K was obtained for the sample sintered at 850 °C, which was attributed to increased scattering of heat-carrying phonons due to pores or voids, and grain boundaries. In addition, a maximum ZT of 0.27 was obtained at 723 K for the HMS-1000 sample, which is comparable with other previously reported data for undoped HMS material. Nevertheless, the HMS-1000 sample exhibited compressive strength of 1208 MPa and fracture toughness of 1.99 MPa m1/2, which is significantly higher than other state-of-the-art thermoelectric materials. The proposed fabrication method could be adopted for mass market applications requiring superior mechanical and thermoelectric properties.