Drastic microstructural modification of Bi2Ca2Co2Oy ceramics by Na doping and laser texturing

Bi2Ca2-xNaxCo2Oy materials with x = 0 < x < 0.125, have been prepared either by sintering through the classical ceramic method, or textured using the laser floating zone technique. XRD results have shown that Bi2Ca2Co2Oy phase is the major one, independently of the Na content, in both kind of samples. SEM studies have shown a drastic microstructural modification between sintered and laser-textured materials. Na-doping increases density and grain sizes in sintered materials, while it enhances grain alignment in laser-grown materials. Moreover, it decreases secondary phase content in all cases. Electrical resistivity is also drastically reduced through texturing, when compared to the sintered samples, and Na-doping further decreases it. The lowest values determined in the laser-textured samples (26 mQ2 cm at 650 degrees C) are around 40% lower than the best in sintered materials. On the other hand, S has been only slightly affected for Na-doping or processing method for all samples. Consequently, the highest power factor at 650 degrees C (0.18 mW/K2 m) has been obtained in laser -grown 0.075Na-doped samples, which is around 20 and 70% higher than the measured in undoped laser-textured samples, and sintered ones, respectively.(c) 2021 SECV. Published by Elsevier Espa n tilde a, S.L.U. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

Automated summary

The study reveals that the Bi2Ca2Co2Oy phase is the major component in both sintered and laser-textured Bi2Ca2-xNaxCo2Oy materials. Laser texturing significantly improves the microstructural modification and reduces the electrical resistivity, especially with Na-doping. The laser-textured 0.075Na-doped samples exhibit the highest power factor at 650 degrees C, which is 20% and 70% higher than the undoped textured samples and sintered ones, respectively.