Structural and thermoelectric properties of copper sulphide powders

Over the past few years, Cu-based materials have been intensively studied focusing on their structural and thermoelectric properties. In this work, copper sulphide powders were synthesized by the sol-gel method. The chemical composition and the morphological properties of the obtained samples were analyzed by X-ray diffraction, differential thermal analysis, and scanning electron microscopy. It is shown that the decomposition from one phase to another can be obtained by annealing. The electrical resistivity and the crystallite size were found to be strongly affected by the phase transition. Thermoelectric analyses showed that the digenite phase exhibits the highest power factor at room temperature. The Seebeck coefficient of the compound Cu 1.8 S shows a pronounced peak at the γ – β transition temperature. This behavior was statistically explained in terms of a dramatic increase in the disorder in the atoms-carriers ensemble.