PURPOSE: To shorten the sintering time remarkably by loading more than one kind of laminar material powder, selected from a silicon-germanium based material, an iron-silicide based material, a lead-tellurium based material and a bismuth-tellurium based material, into a reaction tube and then subjecting the material powder to sintering.
CONSTITUTION: A mold having strength high enough to withstand the sintering conditions of conductive carbon or carbide is employed in a PAS system. More than one kind of laminar material powder is loaded into a carbon die 1 constituting the PAS system and then subjected to plasma sintering thus producing a thermoelectric conversion material efficiently through a simplified process. In other words, molding and sintering can be effected simultaneously, especially at a temperature lower than the melting point, by simply loading the material powder in layer into the reaction tube (A). This method allows remarkable shortening of the sintering time to 10min or thereabout thus realizing effective thermoelectric conversion from low temperature region to high temperature region.
YONEYAMA TAKAHIRO
UESUGI TAKASHI
