Challenges in Improving Performance of Oxide Thermoelectrics Using Defect Engineering

Abstract

Oxide thermoelectric materials are considered promising for high-temperature thermoelectric applications in terms of low cost, temperature stability, reversible reaction, and so on. Oxide materials have been intensively studied to suppress the defects and electronic charge carriers for many electronic device applications, but the studies with a high concentration of defects are limited. It desires to improve thermoelectric performance by enhancing its charge transport and lowering its lattice thermal conductivity. For this purpose, here, we modified the stoichiometry of cation and anion vacancies in two different systems to regulate the carrier concentration and explored their thermoelectric properties. Both cation and anion vacancies act as a donor of charge carriers and act as phonon scattering centers, decoupling the electrical conductivity and thermal conductivity.