Enhanced thermoelectric transport properties of La0.98Sr0.02CoO3-BiCuSeO composite

We report a facile method to enhance the thermoelectric efficiency of La0.98Sr0.02CoO3 by introducing BiCuSeO as a secondary phase with ultra-low thermal conductivity. Inclusion of secondary phase results in reducing the total thermal conductivity by suppressing the lattice and electronic thermal conductivities and also contributes to enhancement in the Seebeck coefficient. The wide grain size distribution of La0.98Sr0.02CoO3-BiCuSeO composite facilitates in breaking the interlinked transport properties through increased scattering of different wavelength phonons. The combined effect of enhanced Seebeck coefficient and ultra-low thermal conductivity, results in an improved ZT value of 0.07 at 923 K. The proposed strategy can be opted for improvement in the thermoelectric efficiency of other thermoelectric materials as well.