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Abstract:
We report a half-Heusler (HH) derivative Ti9Ni7Sn8 with VEC = 17.25 to
investigate the structural changes for the optimization of high
thermoelectric performance. The structural analysis reveals that the
resulting material is a nanocomposite of HH and full-Heusler with traces
of Ti6Sn5 type-phase. Interestingly, present nanocomposite exhibits a
significant decrease in thermal conductivity due to phonon scattering
and improvement in the power factor due to combined effect of
nanoinclusion-induced electron injection and electron scattering at
interfaces, leading to a boost in the ZT value to 0.32 at 773 K, which
is 60% higher than its bulk counterpart HH TiNiSn. (C) 2015 AIP
Publishing LLC.