Effect of thermoelectric material of Ca or Fe-doped LaCoO3

Abstract

As the Perovskite-type Lanthanum Cobalt Oxide of LaCoO3 is nontoxic and thermally stable even at high temperature, this material is expected as a candidate for thermoelectric applications. The thermoelectric performance of a material is often evaluated by the dimensionless figure-of-merit, ZT (=S[Formula: see text]T/[Formula: see text]), or S[Formula: see text] in the ZT equation. S[Formula: see text] shows the electrical characteristic as a Power factor (PF). It has been reported Seebeck coefficient of LaCoO3 is higher than other oxide materials at room temperature even though electrical conductivity and ZT are lower values. In this study, calcium-doped lanthanum cobaltite La[Formula: see text]Ca[Formula: see text]CoO3 (x = 0.00, 0.05, 0.10 and 0.15) and iron-doped lanthanum cobaltite LaCo[Formula: see text]Fe[Formula: see text]O3 (y = 0.05, 0.10 and 0.15) have been prepared by solid-phase process. The X-ray diffraction patterns of the calcium-doped samples and iron-doped samples show cubic perovskite structure. Electric conductivities were improved by Ca or Fe substitution and showed a tendency to increase with increasing the temperature. The sample substituted with Fe 5 mol.% showed the maximum PF, 0.510 ([Formula: see text] W/K2m) at 548 K, and the sample substituted with Ca 15 mol.% showed the maximum PF, 0.152 ([Formula: see text] W/K2m) at 498 K.