中温段热电材料因可利用汽车和发电厂排出的废热发电而备受关注，其中CoSb3热电合金性能较好，不含有害物质Pb是目前工业化应用开发的对象，但由于CoSb3宽的结晶温度间隔和存在包晶反应，使得CoSb3材料制备困难组织难以控制，限制了该合金工业化应用，为此项目采用特定的熔体生长工艺--温度梯度区熔熔化（Temperature gradient zone melting，简称TGZM），直接高效凝固生长CoSb3热电材料，研究热稳定化时间、温度梯度和抽拉速率对合金凝固组织的影响，采用连续切片技术重构TGZM效应下合金糊状区三维组织，获得糊状区中液滴和液相通道迁移的动力学规律，并进一步利用元素掺杂改善TGZM效应下合金的断裂韧性和热电性能，建立TGZM效应下CoSb3合金凝固组织与性能的关系。上述研究对有包晶反应，难以获得同成分的先进金属间化合物晶体生长和组织控制有很好的指导意义。

Automotive and power-generation industrial processes all produce an enormous amount of unused waste heat that could be converted to electricity by using thermoelectric materials. For mid-temperature power generation, the materials based on CoSb3 are environmentally friendly green due to non-toxic pollution free of Pb element. However, the alloy of CoSb3 has a large crystallization temperature interval and peritectic reaction, inhibiting directly growth from the melt. In this work, we carry out a novel solidification technique named as Temperature gradient zone melting (TGZM) to directly grow the single phase of CoSb3. The microstructure and phase solidification are discussed at different growth conditions including thermal stabilization time, thermal gradient as well as pulling rate. By using serial sectioning technique, the migration rate and dynamics of liquid inclusion and droplet in the mushy zone of the alloy has been elucidated. Further, the doped-element effects on the solidification microstructures of the alloys are investigated and the microstructure-related properties including toughness and thermoelectric properties are obtained. These results can be directly used to grow and solidification advanced structural and functional intermetallics that exhibit the similar peritectic reaction.