Thermoelectric properties of A-site deficient La-doped SrTiO3 at 100–900 °C under reducing conditions

Lanthanum doped strontium titanate is a potential n-type thermoelectric material at moderate and high temperatures. (La0.12Sr0.88)0.95TiO3 ceramics were prepared by two different routes, conventional sintering at 1500 °C and spark plasma sintering at temperatures between 925 and 1200 °C. Samples with grain size between 40 nm and 1.4 μm were prepared and characterized with respect to their thermoelectric transport properties at temperatures between 100 and 900 °C under reducing conditions (H2/H2O-buffer mixtures). The thermal conductivity was significantly reduced with decreasing grain size reaching a value of 1.3 W m−1. K−1 at 600 °C for grain size of 40 nm and porosity of 19%. Electrical conductivity increased with increasing grain size showing a maximum of 500 S cm−1 at 200 °C for a grain size of 1.4 μm. The highest figure-of-merit (zT) was measured for samples with 1.4 μm average grain size reaching 0.2 at 500 °C.