Spin state driven weighted mobility and thermal conductivity properties of electron (Hf) doped strongly correlated Mott insulator LaCoO3 for thermoelectric applications

Here, we report the temperature-dependent electrical resistivity and thermopower of hole (Sr) and electron (Hf) doped LaCoO3 in the range of 303–753 K. With increasing temperature, the insulating behavior (303–503 K) with dominance of small polaron hopping to metallic transition (>503 K) is observed. The electron doped sample shows an insulating behavior ( 19.5 Ω cm ) and positive thermopower (139 μV K−1) value due to the spin state blockade, i.e., electron hopping from high spin Co2+ to low spin Co3+ is strongly inhibited. The calculated weighted mobility ( μ W ) of 0.01 to 0.96 cm 2 V − 1 s − 1 validates the observed spin blockade mechanism in electron doped LaCoO3. The fluctuation of spin/orbital ordering and point defect scattering results in the low thermal conductivity of 0.5 W m − 1 K − 1 for Hf doped LaCoO3. The spin state blockade observed in the electrical resistivity and low lattice thermal conductivity reveals that spin state transition drives the thermoelectric response in Mott insulator LaCoO3.