To dispense with a grinding process, in which impurities such as oxygen and vessel material are liable to be mixed into cobalt antimonide thermoelectric material and to shorten a thermal treatment time or a sintering time by a method, wherein material is melted into a melt of prescribed composition, the melt is atomized and quench solidified into powder, and the power is sintered being compressed under a pressure higher than a specific value at a specific temperature.
Cobalt antimonide(CoSb3) thermoelectric material is formed of a CoSb3 compound of skutterudite crystal structure and contains unavoidable impurities and as necessary, a very small amount of additive impurities. This manufacturing method is composed of a first process, where material is melted into a melt of prescribed composition, and the melt is atomized and quench solidified into a powder by and a second process where the powder is sintered as being pressed into a sintered body. The power solidified by quenching is turned into CoSb3 or its substituent compound of single phase through a short heat treatment, so that the heat treatment can be carried out as a conventional sintering process, and a manufacturing process can be simplified. The sintered body is sintered at temperatures of 300 to 850°C and compressed under a pressure of 2 MPa or above.
KASAMA AKIO
TANAKA HISAO
TANIGUCHI MOTOMU
