▎ 摘　　要

Mechanical and thermal stability are the two challenging aspects of thermoelectric compounds and modules. Microcrack formation during material synthesis and mechanical failure under thermo-mechanical loading is commonly observed in thermoelectric materials made from brittle semiconductors. Herein, the results of graphene-nanoplates (GNPs) reinforcement on the mechanical and thermoelectric properties of MnTe compound are reported. The binary antiferromagnetic MnTe shown promising thermoelectric characteristics due to the paramagnon-hole drag above the Neel temperature. In this study, different bulk MnTe samples are synthesized with the addition of GNPs in a small quantity (0.25-1 wt%) by powder metallurgy and spark plasma sintering. The thermoelectric factors, magnetic behavior, microstructure, and mechanical properties of the samples are evaluated and analyzed. Nearly 33% improvement is observed in the fracture toughness of MnTe reinforced with 0.25 wt% GNPs compared to the pristine structure. The Neel temperature remains approximately unaffected with the GNP inclusion; however, the low-temperature ferromagnetic phase impurity is significantly suppressed. The thermal conductivity and power factor decrease almost equally by approximate to 34% at 600 K; hence, the thermoelectric figure-of-merit is not affected by GNP reinforcement in the optimized sample.