Investigation of the thermoelectric properties of La2CuO4 ceramics with the addition of Ag

Abstract La 2 Ag x CuO 4 ( x =0, 0.01, 0.02, 0.05, 0.10, 0.15) polycrystalline ceramics have been synthesized using a solid state reaction method, and their thermoelectric properties measured in the temperature range 10–380 K. The resistivities and Seebeck coefficients of these samples tend to decrease, while the thermal conductivities first decrease then increase as the Ag dose rises. Consequently, the dimensionless thermoelectric figure of merit, ZT , first increases then decreases with increasing Ag content. The maximum ZT values for each sample appear at about 300 K and shift towards lower temperatures with the addition of Ag. At 308 K, the La 2 CuO 4 ceramic with the addition of 5% molar Ag gave the maximum ZT value, 0.018, obtained in this work. This is nearly twice as large as that for pure La 2 CuO 4 .