For thermoelectric applications, ab initio methods generally fail to predict the transport properties of the materials because of their inability to predict properly the carrier concentrations that control the electronic properties. In this work, a methodology to fill in this gap is applied on the NiTiSn half Heusler phase. For that, we show that the main defects act as donor of electrons and are responsible of the electronic properties of the material. Indeed, the presence of Ni_i interstitial defects explains the experimental valence band spectrum and its associated band gap reported in the literature. Moreover, combining the DOS of the solid solutions with the determination of the energy of formation of charged defects, we show that Ni_i defects are also responsible of the measured carrier concentration in experimentally supposed “pure” NiTiSn compounds. Subsequently the thermoelectric properties of NiTiSn can be calculated using a fully ab initio description and an overall correct agreement with experiments is obtained. This methodology can be extended to predict the result of extrinsic doping and thus to select the most efficient dopant for specific thermoelectric applications.

Synthesis of NiTiSn by a mechanical alloying process followed by a high temperature thermal annealing was studied. Experiments were conducted varying parameters like the provided energy, the mechanical alloying reaction time, as well as the annealing temperature and duration. Based on the careful investigation of the phases present in the samples by systematic X-ray diffraction (after mechanical alloying and after annealing) and selected microscopy analyses, a reaction mechanism is proposed supported by theoretical calculations at the DFT (Density Functional Theory) level. An energy window to prepare directly NiTiSn has been evidenced. Highly pure NiTiSn has also been obtained by conversion from a multicomponent precursor obtained by low energy mechanical alloying.