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Advances in Manufacturing >

2019 , Vol. 7 >Issue 3: 278 - 287

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40436-019-00269-y

Accelerating sample preparation of graded thermoelectric materials using an automatic powder feeding system

  • Hua-Yan Pu ,
  • Rong-Qing Xie ,
  • Yan Peng ,
  • Yang Yang ,
  • Shi-Yang He ,
  • Jun Luo ,
  • Yi Sun ,
  • Shao-Rong Xie ,
  • Jun Luo
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  • 1 School of Mechatronic Engineering and Automation, Shanghai University, Shanghai 200444, People's Republic of China;
    2 School of Materials Science and Engineering, Shanghai University, Shanghai 200444, People's Republic of China;
    3 Materials Genome Institute, Shanghai University, Shanghai 200444, People's Republic of China

Received date: 2018-09-30

  Revised date: 2019-03-14

  Online published: 2019-10-09

Supported by

This work was supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (Grant No. 2018YFB0703600), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 51772186, 91748116, 61773254, 61625304, and 61525305), in part by the Science and Technology Commission of the Shanghai Municipality (Grant Nos. 16DZ2260601 and 16441909400), in part by the Shanghai Rising-Star Program (Grant No. 17QA1401500), in part by the Shanghai Young Eastern Scholar Program (Grant Nos. QD2016029 and QD2016031), and in part by the Shanghai Sailing Program (Grant No. 17YF1406200).

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Abstract

In recent years, the development of techniques for the controlled preparation of functional graded materials (FGMs) has become a vigorous research field. In this study, to improve the efficiency and accuracy of sample preparations, an automated feeding system based on gravimetric principles for dry powder with three dosing feeders is designed and realized. The feeding rate and accuracy can be regulated by coordinating the protruded length L (mm) and rotational speed V (r/min) of the feeder stirrer. To demonstrate this automatic sample preparation system, the well-known thermoelectric material BixSb2-xTe3 (x=0.3, 0.4, 0.5, 0.6, 0.7 and 0.8) is selected and prepared by the developed system, and the composition distribution of the functional graded material is characterized. Experimental results show that the BixSb2-xTe3 (x=0.3-0.8) functionally graded material crystalizes in the rhombohedral phase after hot-pressing sintering and annealing and the prepared sample has a good gradient composition distribution. This verifies the reliability and accuracy of the feeding system. The concept of samples with a gradient component and application of the automatic powder feeding system could considerably accelerate the research and development of new materials.

The full text can be downloaded at https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007%2Fs40436-019-00269-y.pdf

Key words： Powder feeding; Automatic system; Functional graded material; Thermoelectric

Cite this article

Hua-Yan Pu , Rong-Qing Xie , Yan Peng , Yang Yang , Shi-Yang He , Jun Luo , Yi Sun , Shao-Rong Xie , Jun Luo . Accelerating sample preparation of graded thermoelectric materials using an automatic powder feeding system[J]. Advances in Manufacturing, 2019 , 7(3) : 278 -287 . DOI: 10.1007/s40436-019-00269-y

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