Improved Thermoelectric Performance Achieved by Regulating Heterogeneous Phase in Half-Heusler TiNiSn-Based Materials

With excellent high-temperature stability (up to 1000 K) and favorable electrical properties for thermoelectric application, TiNiSn-based half-Heusler (HH) alloys are expected to be promising thermoelectric materials for the recovery of waste heat in the temperature ranging from 700 K to 900 K. However, their thermal conductivity is always relatively high (5–10 W/mK), making it difficult to further enhance their thermoelectric figure-of-merit (ZT). In the past decade, introducing nano-scale secondary phases into the HH alloy matrix has been proven to be feasible for optimizing the thermoelectric performance of TiNiSn. In this study, a series of TiNiSn-based alloys have been successfully synthesized by a simple solid-state reaction. The content and composition of the heterogeneous phase (TiNi₂Sn and Sn) is accurately regulated and, as a result, the thermal conductivity successfully reduced from 4.9 W m⁻¹ K⁻¹ to 3.0 Wm⁻¹ K⁻¹ (750 K) due to multi-scale phonon scattering. Consequently, a ZT value of 0.49 is achieved at 750 K in our TiNiSn-based thermoelectric materials. Furthermore, the thermal stability of TiNiSn alloys is enhanced through reducing the Sn substance phase.