Macrostructural influence on the thermoelectric properties of SiC ceramics

The thermoelectric properties of SiC ceramics with various macrostructures, including foams and bulks used for power generation, have been examined. SiC foam is shown to exhibit much higher ZT (a dimensionless figure of merit) than that of SiC bulk, which indicates that thermoelectric performance has strongly correlation with macrostructure. The thermoelectric properties of SiC bulk with 5 wt.% Si addition were also studied and the results show that macrostructure can have a larger effect on ZT than doping. (C) 2007 Acta Materialia Inc. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.