High-temperature oxide thermoelectrics

Abstract

We have evaluated the power factor of transition metal oxides at high temperatures using the Heikes formula and the Ioffe-Regel conductivity. The evaluated power factor is found to be nearly independent of carrier concentration in a wide range of doping, and well explains the experimental data for cobalt oxides. This suggests that the same power factor can be obtained with a thermopower larger than $2k_B/e$, and also suggests a reasonably high value of the dimensionless figure of merit $ZT$. We propose an oxide thermoelectric power generator by using materials having a thermopower larger than 300 $\mu$V/K.