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  1. Additive manufacturing allows fabrication of custom-shaped thermoelectric materials while minimizing waste, reducing processing steps, and maximizing integration compared to conventional methods. Establishing the process-structure-property relationship of laser additive manufactured thermoelectric materials facilitates enhanced process control and thermoelectric performance. This research focuses on laser processing of bismuth telluride (Bi 2 Te 3 ), a well-established thermoelectric material for low temperature applications. Single melt tracks under various parameters (laser power, scan speed and number of scans) were processed on Bi 2 Te 3 powder compacts. A detailed analysis of the transition in the melting mode, grain growth, balling formation, and elemental composition is provided. Rapid melting and solidification of Bi 2 Te 3 resulted in fine-grained microstructure with preferential grain growth along the direction of the temperature gradient. Experimental results were corroborated with simulations for melt pool dimensions as well as grain morphology transitions resulting from the relationship between temperature gradient and solidification rate. Samples processed at 25 W, 350 mm/s with 5 scans resulted in minimized balling and porosity, along with columnar grains having a high density of dislocations. 
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  2. Additive manufacturing offers several opportunities for thermoelectric energy harvesting systems. This new manufacturing approach enables customized leg geometries, minimized thermal boundary resistances, less retooling, reduced thermoelectric material waste, and strong potential to manipulate microstructure for higher values of figure of merit. Although additive manufacturing has been used to fabricate thin thermoelectric films, there has been comparatively limited demonstrations of additive manufacturing for bulk thermoelectric structures. This review provides insights about the current progress of bulk thermoelectric material and device additive manufacturing. Each additive manufacturing technique used to produce bulk thermoelectric structures is discussed in detail along with future directions and challenges. 
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  3. Abstract

    Laser processing of thermoelectric materials provides an avenue to influence the nano‐ and micro‐structure of the material and enable additive manufacturing processes that facilitate freeform device shapes, a capability that is lacking in thermoelectric materials processing. This paper describes the multiscale structures formed in selenium‐doped bismuth telluride, an n‐type thermoelectric material, from laser‐induced rapid melting and solidification. Macroscale samples are fabricated in a layer‐by‐layer technique using laser powder bed fusion (also known as selective laser melting). Laser processing results in highly textured columnar grains oriented in the build direction, nanoscale inclusions, and a shift in the primary charge carriers. Sparse oxide inclusions and tellurium segregation shift the material to p‐type behavior with a Seebeck coefficient that peaks at 143 µV K–1at 95 °C. With an average relative density of 74%, fabricated parts have multiscale porosity and microscale cracking that likely resulted from low powder layer packing density and processing parameters near the transition threshold between conduction and keyhole mode processing. These results provide insights regarding the pathways for influencing carrier transport in thermoelectric materials via laser melting‐induced nanoscale structuring and the laser processing parameters required to achieve effective powder consolidation and hierarchical structuring in thermoelectric parts.

     
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