Synergistically tuning the electrical and thermal transport properties of CdO:Cu thermoelectric ceramics

Abstract

The thermoelectric performance of CdO ceramics was optimized by synergistically tuning their electrical and thermal transport properties via Cu doping. The introduction of Cu led to an increase in carrier concentration and mobility simultaneously for samples with Cu content less than 3%. An improvement in power factor was obtained due to decreased electrical resistivity and a moderate Seebeck coefficient. A small amount of Cu doping was also verified to be effective in suppressing the heat transfer of CdO ceramics owing to the enhanced phonon scattering from point defects and grain boundaries. Benefiting from the increase in power factor and decrease in thermal conductivity, enhanced ZT values were achieved in all doped samples, indicating that Cu doping is an effective strategy to promote the thermoelectric performance of CdO ceramics.