Abstract: Thermoelectric materials, Mg2Si1-xGex(x=0, 0.2, 0.4, 0.6, 0.8, 1), have been prepared by bulk mechanical alloying (BMA) and hot pressing (HP). The electrical conductivity, Seebeck coefficient and thermal conductivity were measured from room temperature up to about 700 K. The electrical conductivity of all the samples increases with increasing temperature, while the Seebeck coefficient and thermal conductivity decrease with increasing temperature. Mg2Si and Mg2Si0.8Ge0.2 possess negative type of conductivity, while for other compounds it is positive. At the same time, the effect of hot processing condition on thermoelectric properties was also investigated. The maximum figure of merit of Mg2Si0.6Ge0.4 was obtained with the processing parameter of BMA at 600 cycles and hot pressing at 773 K and 1 GPa for 1 h.

Key words: Solid-state synthesis, Mg2Si1-xGex, Bulk mechanical alloying, Thermoelectric, Hot pressing