Additive Manufacturing of Thermoelectric Materials

This project is developing a 3D ink-extrusion technique for printing half-Heusler thermoelectric materials using a low-cost 3D printer. This approach suspends metallic powder precursors in a viscous polymer solution to print continuous struts forming microlattice structures. A subsequent heat treatment step vaporizes the remaining polymer and binder while simultaneously densifying the powders. Afterwards, the printed part is infiltrated with a liquid metal precursor to form the desired NiTiSn thermoelectric phase.