title: Enhancement of thermoelectric performance of ball-milled bismuth due to spark-plasma-sintering-induced interface modifications.
abstract: Interface modification in transport properties of single elemental polycrystalline Bi via spark plasma sintering results in 'double-decoupling' (simultaneous decoupling of thermopower, electrical, and thermal conductivity) of otherwise coupled entities. In spark plasma sintering, the DC pulse current helps in controlling the nature and extent of surfaces of ball-milled Bi and hence results in six-fold improvement in the dimensionless figure of merit (ZT) relative to as-purchased samples.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics and Astronomy, Clemson University, Clemson, SC 29634, USA.
authors.forename: Pooja
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Puneet
authors.forename: Ramakrishna
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Podila
authors.forename: Song
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.forename: Malcolm J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Skove
authors.forename: Terry M
authors.initials: TM
authors.lastname: Tritt
authors.forename: Jian
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: He
authors.forename: Apparao M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Rao