Resistivity, Seebeck coefficient, and thermal conductivity of platinum at high pressure and temperature

Abstract

Platinum (Pt) is one of the most widely used functional materials for high-pressure and high-temperature experiments. Despite the crucial importance of its transport properties, both experimental and theoretical studies are very limited. In this study, we conducted density functional theory calculations on the electrical resistivity, the Seebeck coefficient, and the thermal conductivity of solid face-centered cubic Pt at pressures up to 200 GPa and temperatures up to 4800 K by using the Kubo-Greenwood formula. The thermal lattice displacements were treated within the alloy analogy, which is represented by means of the Korringa-Kohn-Rostoker method with the coherent potential approximation. The electrical resistivity decreases with pressure and increases with temperature. These two conflicting effects yield a constant resistivity of similar to 70 mu Omega cm along the melting curve. Both pressure and temperature effects enhance the thermal conductivity at low temperatures, but the temperature effect becomes weaker at high temperatures. Although the pressure dependence of the Seebeck coefficient is negligibly small at temperatures below similar to 1500 K, it becomes larger at higher temperatures. It requires a calibration of a thermocouple such as Pt-Rh in high-pressure and -temperature experiments.