Fabrication and Characterization of Thermoelectric Fe2VAl Alloy Powders by Mechanical Alloying.

A mixture of elemental Fe50V25Al25 powders has been subjected to mechanical alloying (MA) at room temperature to prepare the Heusler Fe2VAl thermoelectric alloy. Fe2VAI alloy with a grain size of 90 nm can be obtained by MA of Fe50V25Al25 powders for 60 h and subsequently annealed at 700 degrees C. Consolidation of the MA powders was performed in a spark plasma sintering (SPS) machine using graphite dies up to 900-1000 degrees C under 60 MPa. The shrinkage of consolidated samples during SPS was significant at about 400 degrees C. X-ray diffraction data shows that the SPS compact from 60 h MA powders consolidated up to 900 degrees C consists of only nanocrystalline Fe2VAl alloy with a grain size of 200 nm.