Description:

Title: Microstructural correlation with various properties of nanostructured functional oxides and thermoelectric materials

Speaker: Dr. Avanish Srivastava, CSIR National Physical Laboratory 

Abstract: The idea of present talk is to highlight the priority areas in synthesis, characterizatio n and properties evaluation in the field of metals & alloys, semiconducting materials, composites and the science and technology of nanostructured materials, as under investigation in the group. The research activity has been aimed for the development of newer materials and evaluation leading towards the optimization of process parameters for the best possible applicability. In the present paper, a set of examples is taken up from the nanostructured ZnO, TiO2, WO3, Carbon and Graphene on novel routes of syntheses, microstructures , growth morphologies and related spectroscopic, optical and electrochemical performance. On another set of examples, few electron microscopic and spectroscopic studies on thermoelectric materials have been presented and discussed. It has been established that nanostructuring of these materials results in a clear enhancement in the figure-of-merit . It has been further demonstrated that the conducting grain boundaries due to inclusion of second phase particles in Mg2Si/Pb system increase the ZT. There are significant differences in the properties of thermoelectric materials due to nanostructuring encompassing dense-grain boundaries, ultra-fine inclusions, lattice-scale modulations, etc., which in turn alter the performance of these fascinating class of materials for different energy applications.

Keywords: Physics, Astronomy, CMP