Toward the enhancement of thermoelectric properties of lamellar Ca3Co4O9 by edge-free spark plasma texturing
Résumé
A spark plasma sintering (SPS) device was modified to allow free deformation of grains perpendicular to the loading axis. The aim was to obtain lamellar thermoelectric Ca3Co4O9 ceramics. The new process is referred to as edge-free spark plasma sintering or spark plasma texturing (SPT). SPT materials are compared to those processed by conventional sintering and traditional SPS in terms of microstructure, texture and high-temperature thermoelectric properties. The results highlight the decisive advantages of the SPT technique.