High-temperature thermoelectric properties of Cd1−xPrxO ceramics

The high-temperature thermoelectric properties of Cd1−xPrxO (0% ⩽ x ⩽ 1.5%) ceramics have been investigated. The addition of a very small amount of Pr6O11 to CdO results in a remarkable decrease in resistivity while maintaining moderate Seebeck coefficient and thermal conductivity. The dimensionless figure-of-merit ZT of the 0.1% Pr-doped CdO sample reaches 0.38 at about 1000 K, which is comparable to the best ZT values so far reported for n-type oxide ceramic thermoelectric materials.