The innovation engine for new materials

Demetrious Lloyd

Major: 

Chemistry

Mentor(s): 

Malinda Buffon

Faculty Sponsor(s): 

Ram Seshadri

Faculty Sponsor's Department(s): 

Materials

Project Title: 

Thermoelectric Potential of TiFe2Sn

Project Description: 

Thermoelectric materials possess the capability to regenerate waste heat into reusable energy. We attempted to discover the thermoelectric potential of the theoretically semi-conducting 24 valence electron structure of TiFe2Sn, which orders in the Heusler crystal structure which is known for producing good thermoelectric materials. To ensure that TiFe2Sn was a stable and preferred phase, we synthesized variations of this compound: Ti1+xFe2-xSn and Ti1-xFe2+xSn where x=0.025, 0.05, 0.075, and 0.1. We were able to synthesize this compound by arc-melting the pure metals together in their stoichiometric proportions followed by annealing and spark plasma sintering (SPS) the compounds for purity. Once melted, analysis of the compound for phase purity was performed via X-ray diffraction (XRD) and ZEM to test for electrical conductivity and Seebeck coefficient. Analysis on TiFe2Sn via the general structure analysis system (GSAS) has shown the compound has been successfully synthesized for most compounds in the aforementioned compounds. This lattice structure was preferred despite alterations of titanium and iron ratios up to x=0.1. We will test if thermoelectric properties, such as electrical conductivity and Seebeck coefficient, are affected by this distribution of the titanium and iron ratios. The discoveries made in this project will have been added to the general knowledge and literature of the compound.