Effects of Processing Strategies and La plus Sm Co-Doping on the Thermoelectric Performance of A-Site-Deficient SrTiO3-delta Ceramics

The effect of calcining in either air (VSTO-A) or 5% H-2/N-2 (VSTO-H) on the thermoelectric performance of La and Sm co-doped A-site-deficient Sr1-3x/2Lax/2Smx/2TiO3-delta ceramics is reported. All calcined powders were sintered 6 h in 5% H-2/N-2 at 1773 K to >= 96% relative density. All peaks in X-ray diffraction patterns indexed as a cubic perovskite phase. Scanning electron microscopy revealed grain sizes similar to 14 and similar to 10 mu m for VSTO-A and VSTO-H ceramics, respectively. x = 0.30 showed the lowest k (2.99 W/m.K at 973 K) for VSTO-A, whereas x = 0.20 had the lowest (2.67 W/m.K at 973 K) for the VSTO-H ceramics. x = 0.30 VSTO-A showed a thermoelectric figure of merit, ZT = 0.25 (at 973 K), whereas the maximum ZT = 0.30 (at 973 K) was achieved for x = 0.20 VSTO-H ceramics, demonstrating that thermoelectric properties are optimized when all processing is carried out in 5% H-2/N-2.