PMID- 28327655
OWN - NLM
STAT- PubMed-not-MEDLINE
DCOM- 20180910
LR  - 20181113
IS  - 2045-2322 (Electronic)
IS  - 2045-2322 (Linking)
VI  - 7
DP  - 2017 Mar 22
TI  - Thin-film metallic glass: an effective diffusion barrier for Se-doped AgSbTe(2) 
      thermoelectric modules.
PG  - 45177
LID - 10.1038/srep45177 [doi]
LID - 45177
AB  - The thermal stability of joints in thermoelectric (TE) modules, which are 
      degraded during interdiffusion between the TE material and the contacting metal, 
      needs to be addressed in order to utilize TE technology for competitive, 
      sustainable energy applications. Herein, we deposit a 200 nm-thick Zr-based 
      thin-film metallic glass (TFMG), which acts as an effective diffusion barrier 
      layer with low electrical contact resistivity, on a high-zT Se-doped AgSbTe(2) 
      substrate. The reaction couples structured with TFMG/TE are annealed at 673 K for 
      8-360 hours and analyzed by electron microscopy. No observable IMCs 
      (intermetallic compounds) are formed at the TFMG/TE interface, suggesting the 
      effective inhibition of atomic diffusion that may be attributed to the 
      grain-boundary-free structure of TFMG. The minor amount of Se acts as a tracer 
      species, and a homogeneous Se-rich region is found nearing the TFMG/TE interface, 
      which guarantees satisfactory bonding at the joint. The diffusion of Se, which 
      has the smallest atomic volume of all the elements from the TE substrate, is 
      found to follow Fick's second law. The calculated diffusivity (D) of Se in TFMG 
      falls in the range of D~10(-20)-10(-23)(m(2)/s), which is 10(6)~10(7) and 
      10(12)~10(13) times smaller than those of Ni [10(-14)-10(-17)(m(2)/s)] and Cu 
      [10(-8)-10(-11)(m(2)/s)] in Bi(2)Te(3), respectively.
FAU - Yu, Chia-Chi
AU  - Yu CC
AD  - Department of Materials Science and Engineering, National Taiwan University of 
      Science and Technology, Taipei 10607, Taiwan.
FAU - Wu, Hsin-Jay
AU  - Wu HJ
AD  - Department of Materials and Optoelectronic science, National Sun Yat-sen 
      University, Kaohsiung 80424, Taiwan.
FAU - Deng, Ping-Yuan
AU  - Deng PY
AD  - Department of Materials and Optoelectronic science, National Sun Yat-sen 
      University, Kaohsiung 80424, Taiwan.
FAU - Agne, Matthias T
AU  - Agne MT
AD  - Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Northwestern University, 
      Evanston, IL 60208, USA.
FAU - Snyder, G Jeffrey
AU  - Snyder GJ
AD  - Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Northwestern University, 
      Evanston, IL 60208, USA.
FAU - Chu, Jinn P
AU  - Chu JP
AD  - Department of Materials Science and Engineering, National Taiwan University of 
      Science and Technology, Taipei 10607, Taiwan.
LA  - eng
PT  - Journal Article
PT  - Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
PT  - Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.
DEP - 20170322
PL  - England
TA  - Sci Rep
JT  - Scientific reports
JID - 101563288
PMC - PMC5361086
COIS- The authors declare no competing financial interests.
EDAT- 2017/03/23 06:00
MHDA- 2017/03/23 06:01
PMCR- 2017/03/22
CRDT- 2017/03/23 06:00
PHST- 2016/11/18 00:00 [received]
PHST- 2017/02/20 00:00 [accepted]
PHST- 2017/03/23 06:00 [entrez]
PHST- 2017/03/23 06:00 [pubmed]
PHST- 2017/03/23 06:01 [medline]
PHST- 2017/03/22 00:00 [pmc-release]
AID - srep45177 [pii]
AID - 10.1038/srep45177 [doi]
PST - epublish
SO  - Sci Rep. 2017 Mar 22;7:45177. doi: 10.1038/srep45177.