Comments on the thermoelectric power of intermetallic rare-earth compounds with well localized 4f shells

•We reveal an errant theory for thermopower (TEP) of f-electron systems.•The theory pretends to explain the TEP maxima and its sign changes.•The theory was used in many works to interpret the TEP experiment.•We correct the errors, presenting detailed and strict calculations.•Electron-phonon and s-f scattering in Born approximation give only nearly linear TEP.

The anomalous temperature variation of the thermoelectric power in the metallic rare-earth compounds with well-localized 4f shells is sometimes interpreted as resulting from the conduction electrons scattering in the Born approximation on the acoustic phonons and on the localized spins in the s–f exchange interaction. Such an interpretation relies on the results of some theoretical works where the sign reversal and the maxima of the thermoelectric power were obtained within these simple models. In the present paper we prove that neither the electron–phonon scattering nor the magnetic s–f scattering in the Born approximation (nor both of them) do lead to the effects mentioned above.